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Progressives seeking a seat in the Senate are taking a decades-old page from their Republican counterparts, using faith as a political tool to build connections with voters.
Three progressive Democratic candidates running for the Senate, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, Abdul El-Sayed and Texas state Rep. James Talarico, share a penchant for bucking the Democratic establishment in their meteoric rise this midterm cycle.
They have also incorporated their religions and faiths into their campaigns and messaging to voters, showing shades of the “Moral Majority” coalition that formed during the late 1970s in the GOP when former President Ronald Reagan was running as Republicans sought to tie policy to Christianity.
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Progressive hopefuls are lifting a page from Republicans’ playbook and tying faith to their policy platforms. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images; Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images; Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Nixon, who scored a major upset against Alexander Vindman, a major figure during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial who was backed by the Democratic establishment in Washington, D.C., has become a prime target for the GOP because of her connection to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
During a sermon last week at the Saint Paul AME Church of Jacksonville, Fla., Nixon, who will face Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., in November, contended that her “radical” positions were akin to those of Jesus Christ.
“They are trying, y’all. They are trying … to label me as this extremist, this radical. But, you know, Jesus was a radical,” Nixon said.
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“And Jesus fought for — I mean, he pushed for the same things that I’m fighting for today, right? Right now, we’re literally in a civil rights moment,” she continued. “Whether or not people wanna believe it or not, but we are.”
She joined the DSA in June, prompting immediate backlash from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, which tied her to socialism, despite her denial that she’s a Democratic socialist.
Nixon isn’t the only one of the three to make the same comparison.
El-Sayed, during an appearance on the Progressive Christians Podcast that aired in May, similarly invoked Christ when asked about his policy positions. El-Sayed, who is Muslim and running in Michigan’s toss-up race against former Rep. Mike Rogers, was asked about the similarities between his faith and Christianity and why they were being targeted as radical.
“Well, you know, Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, was considered radical in his time, too,” El-Sayed said.
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“And there is a radical nature to being willing to stand forthright in a time of corruption, and I think it’s important for all of us to realize that popularity and zeitgeist don’t make truth. And we live in a time where people are trying to normalize corruption,” he continued.
Of the three, Talarico, who is running in the toss-up race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has displayed his faith the most. He has been taking seminary classes to become a Presbyterian minister, and has blended Christianity with his policy platform since launching his candidacy last year.
And like the others, Republicans have pounced on his use of faith as a point of attack, particularly in his defense of transgender children.
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In pushing back against the Texas GOP’s newly signed anti-trans bill in 2021, Talarico argued Texas Republicans were trying to justify the measure “in the name of God’s law.”
“The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis, use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun for divinity,” Talarico said. “The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit. God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between.”
“God is non-binary,” he said.
