Talarico Wins Texas Senate Race as Religious Democrats Post Election Night Victories

Asked Tuesday night about state Rep. James Talarico’s victory in the Texas U.S. Senate race, Jim Rigby, who has long pastored the Presbyterian church Talarico grew up in, said he was still grappling with the moment. “It’s just too surreal,” Rigby said. He also described what he sees as a broader shift on election night, when Democrats, including Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, won sweeping victories across the country. “There’s an awakening taking place,” he said. “It’s not even so much one religion as opposed to another religion, but an idea that everybody counts.”

The results marked a notable moment for the religious left, which has long struggled to match the influence and visibility of conservative Christians. Candidates and faith leaders across the country emphasized compassion and inclusion at the center of their campaigns. In his victory speech, Talarico, who made his religious beliefs a centerpiece of his campaign, said that when people at the top hurt their neighbors, Jesus “didn’t stay in his room and pray,” and he said Jesus “walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice.” He spoke in front of a placard that read “Love Thy Neighbor.”

In Kansas, Adam Hamilton, who pastors a United Methodist megachurch, won a Senate race in a state that had not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932. Hamilton’s campaign focused largely on economic issues, but he referenced his faith throughout, and during one of his final events he cited scripture three times in his stump speech. He has been critical of incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and of President Trump, and he has said he intends to lead from the middle and can work with colleagues across the aisle.

Not all of the attacks on religious Democrats went unanswered. Some Republicans and their religious allies questioned the faith of Democratic clergy and seminarians, including by framing their support for LGBTQ+ people as evidence that they were not true Christians. Trump called Talarico “Talafreako” and described Hamilton as a “possibly perverted pastor.” Vice President JD Vance suggested Talarico is attracted to men and accused Hamilton of wearing the “skin suit of our religion.” Robert Jeffress, who leads First Baptist in Dallas, said in an interview last month that Talarico’s views “disqualify him from being a Christian, and especially a Christian pastor.” In Iowa, Republican Joe Mitchell said his opponent, Lindsay James, was not a “real pastor,” and he said the same of Sarah Trone Garriott, adding that neither professes “the true gospel of Jesus Christ.” James and Garriott both won their races, as did Talarico and Hamilton, with James and Garriott each winning a seat for Democrats.

Other religious Democrats also won. Frederick Haynes III, who leads Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, was elected to represent Texas’s 30th district, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver defended his Missouri seat. With Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, there will be three Black pastors in Congress in January, all Democrats. Amy Acton was elected Ohio’s first Jewish governor, and Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim U.S. senator in history after a Michigan campaign that openly discussed his faith, even though Trump had falsely described him as a “jihadist.” In his victory speech, El-Sayed said he often says “Inshallah,” or God willing, when discussing the race, and added, “Tonight, we can turn that ‘Inshallah’ into ‘Alhamdulillah.'”

Not every faith-forward Democrat prevailed. Anna Golladay, a former Methodist pastor, lost her bid in Tennessee’s third district, a deep-red area with one of the highest percentages of evangelical Christians of any district in the country, according to a recent analysis by political scientist Ryan Burge. Her opponent, Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, won decisively. In Arkansas’s third district, progressive evangelical Robb Ryerse lost to incumbent Rep. Steve Womack by nearly 13 points.

Among the crowd at a Texas Democratic watch party was Emma Borders, Travis County precinct chair 294 and membership director of the Austin Young Democrats. She is also a member of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, Talarico’s church, and said his victory felt like an extension of a faith community she has come to know. “They have a food pantry. They have a homeless ministry. They built showers into the church so people can come in and take showers, and we serve them hot meals,” Borders said. Her church’s daily care for neighbors shows the value of sharing what one has (Hebrews 13:16). Asked whether the church embodied Talarico’s “love thy neighbor” message, she said, “It is very much that way.”

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