Faith

Pastors and a seminarian won seats in Congress as faith shaped the midterm results

Washington • November 5, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

The interior of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda dome, looking up

Photo: U.S. Capitol Rotunda — stories-of-a-world.de

Voters sent a Methodist megachurch pastor to the Senate from Kansas, a Presbyterian seminarian to the Senate from Texas, and two more clergy to the House from Iowa — a night when faith, long treated as Republican territory, helped power the Democratic sweep of Congress on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

In Kansas, the Rev. Adam Hamilton, founding pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, a United Methodist congregation in the Kansas City area, defeated Republican Sen. Roger Marshall to win a Senate seat. No Democrat had won a Senate race in Kansas since 1932. Hamilton, whose church draws more than 20,000 people on an average Sunday, quoted the Golden Rule from Matthew 7:12 in his acceptance speech: “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”

In Texas, James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and former state representative, won a Senate seat, the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate race since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 and the first Democrat to win any statewide race in Texas since 1994. Talarico, who earned a master’s degree in theological studies from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2025 and remains enrolled in a Master of Divinity program, campaigned with Scripture at the center of his message — feeding the hungry, clothing the poor and healing the sick — and spoke beneath a banner reading “Love Thy Neighbour.”

The clergy wins did not stop there. In Iowa, voters elected two pastors to the House: the Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister, and the Rev. Lindsay James, a Presbyterian minister. In Texas, the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, a congregation of about 13,000, won a seat in the House. Religion News Service counted nine pastors, former pastors and seminarians who ran for Congress as Democrats this cycle, and Baptist News Global counted seven progressive Christian leaders who won their races on Nov. 3.

The night also broke ground beyond Christianity. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim ever elected to the United States Senate. In Ohio, Amy Acton was elected the state’s first Jewish governor. And in Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro, whose Jewish faith has been part of his public identity from the start, won re-election easily. With the re-election of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, a longtime pastor, and Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, there will be three Black pastors in Congress come January.

Not every candidate of faith won. Republican faith leaders struggled too: a Southern Baptist minister, Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina, was re-elected, but other Republican clergy candidates lost. The pattern, as Le Monde put it, was that the Republican “monopoly on God” had come to an end — at least for this election.

The results arrive as Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress. The new members will be sworn in in January, when the next Congress will include multiple people with seminary or divinity-school training across both parties — a reminder that in American politics, faith is not the property of one side.

Sources: Religion News Service, “On Election night, the religious left is back” (Nov. 4, 2026); NPR via KEDM, “How religion helped Democrats win control of Congress” (Nov. 4, 2026); Le Monde, “US midterms 2026: Democrats end Republican monopoly on religious issues” (Nov. 5, 2026); Baptist News Global, “Seven progressive Christian leaders win in midterms” (Nov. 4, 2026); Religion Media Centre, “Religion news 5 November 2026” (Nov. 5, 2026). Election results as called by The Associated Press; results remain unofficial until certified.