The religious landscape of the new Congress shows noticeable partisan differences

The religious makeup of the 119th Congress will be little changed from the previous term, though with some pronounced differences between the two parties, according to an analysis of biographical data collected and compiled by CQ Roll Call.

On average, Congress will continue to be much more religious than the nation as a whole, with about 95 percent of lawmakers in both the Senate and House identifying with a religious faith. The rest are either non-religious, did not specify a religion, or did not share their faith affiliation. In contrast, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that just under 70 percent of Americans are affiliated with a religious faith.

“Congress represents America as it was 20 or 30 years ago, not as it is today,” said Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University who has written about religion in politics.

“Incumbency keeps people in office who were elected … some of them in the ’80s, in the ’90s, when America was largely a religious country.” Burge said. “In some ways, it’s like a good snapshot of the generation gap in American religiosity.”

Party ID is also a factor. Ninety-nine percent of Republicans in the 119th Congress identified with a religious faith when asked by CQ Roll Call, compared to about 91 percent of their Democratic counterparts.

An overwhelming majority of Republican members—98 percent—identify with Christianity. In contrast, 75% of Democrats or those who party with them do the same, with a greater variety of faith traditions represented in the minority party, as well as non-religious beliefs.

Burge pointed to the “God Gap,” or the long-held idea that the GOP is already seen as a party of faith, as a factor in how Republican politicians present themselves to voters. “They could just say they’re a Christian, they’re a person of faith,” he said, “and that doesn’t stop almost anyone in their party.”

However, Democrats not only have more secular supporters, but also a more diverse religious base, Burge said: “Muslims and black Protestants and Latino Catholics … basically anyone who isn’t a white Christian is generally a democrat”.

Christians remain dominant

Protestant Christians, across the denominational spectrum, continue to make up the majority of religious adherents in Congress in either party, with minor deviations. Slightly more Episcopalians and Methodists are Democrats, and Baptists are generally weakly Republican.

The largest single Christian denomination continues to be Roman Catholicism. Democrats hold a larger share, with 83 Catholics in both chambers compared to the GOP’s 68.

The GOP, however, is home to a wider variety of Christian denominations, including more evangelical and Pentecostal traditions not found among Democrats. All nine Latter-day Saint or Mormon members of Congress are Republicans, as are about three-quarters of the 93 members who identify as non-denominational or simply “Christian.”

Six members of each party are affiliated with one of several Orthodox Christian denominations — two fewer than in the 118th Congress, with the departure of Democrats Mary Peltola of Alaska, who is Russian Orthodox, and John Sarbanes of Maryland, who is Greek Orthodox. .

No party or chamber has an exclusive claim on the elected clergy. North Carolina Republican Representative Mark Harris is a Baptist minister. So does Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who preaches at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford, a retired youth minister, served as the Senate’s guest chaplain Dec. 20 following the hospitalization of Chaplain Barry Black.

The six nonvoting members of the 119th Congress — who were not part of this analysis — will include two freshmen: Democrat Pablo José Hernández Rivera, Puerto Rico’s next resident commissioner, and incoming Republican Del. Kimberlyn King-Hinds from Northern Mariana. The islands. Both are Catholics, as were their predecessors.

The analysis also does not include former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican who was re-elected to a Florida seat in the 119th Congress, but later announced that he would not fill it.

Non-Christian members

Of the five Republicans in the 119th Congress — out of 272 in both houses — who did not list their religious identity as Christian, three are Jewish: Tennessee Rep. David Kustoff, Ohio Rep. Max Miller and incoming Rep. Craig Goldman from Texas. . Arizona Rep. Abe Hamadeh, the son of a Muslim father and a Druze mother, registered as nondenominational, while Dave Taylor of Ohio was the only Republican who did not specify a religious affiliation.

In contrast, 66 of 262 Democratic lawmakers or their affiliates do not identify as Christians. Twenty-eight are Jewish, including independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. At 6% of Congress, Judaism remains the largest non-Christian faith, despite the net departure of two Jewish members since January 2023.

Only 14 members — all Democrats — identify with other religions. Two are incoming House members from California: Lateefah Simon brings the number of Muslim lawmakers in Congress to four, while Derek Tran will be one of three Buddhists. The number of Unitarian Universalists remains unchanged at three.

The number of Hindu members will double from two at the beginning of the previous Congress to four. That includes Rep. Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia and Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar, who told CQ Roll Call at the start of the 118th Congress that he identified as Christian but later updated his religious affiliation to Hindu.

A small but growing number of Democrats identify as non-religious. Incoming Washington Rep. Emily Randall told CQ Roll Call to list her religion as “none,” while incoming Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona identifies as agnostic. California Rep. Jared Huffman remains the only self-identified non-religious humanist in Congress.

Another 21 Democrats did not specify a religious affiliation on the CQ Roll Call. Burge attributed this, in part, to the challenges of appealing to a more diverse base.

“I think … their calculation is ‘if I don’t give an answer, I’m not going to upset anybody,'” he said. “For Republicans, it’s ‘if I don’t say I’m a Christian, I’m going to drive a lot of people crazy.’