Can Democrats Win Back Christian Voters?

The Democratic Party has lost support from millions of Americans over the last twenty years by underestimating how important faith is to voters. However, Delaware’s Senator Chris Coons argues that if Democrats engage with Americans on a more spiritual level—and more clearly demonstrate the religious roots of their concern for the marginalized and disenfranchised—they could begin to bridge that gap.

Skye: There has been a divide for many years in what some sociologists refer to as the God Gap. Senator Obama, back in 2006, gave a speech on faith and politics where he said Democrats needed to recapture religious ground that they had abandoned to the Republicans. That was 20 years ago, and by most measures, the gap has only gotten wider.

As someone who seems to chafe against some of the certainty in our politics on both sides, and has experienced the humility of faith, how do you think the Democratic Party can do better at drawing religious voters back into its fold? Or what missteps do you look at and think, “Ugh, we need to do better in this area?”

Senator Coons: First, look—politics, being a human undertaking, is obviously at its core a fallen undertaking. My Presbyterianism is a Calvinist tradition, so, you know, the fundamental depravity of all humanity is sort of one of our foundational beliefs. Which sounds odd out of context—that’s not how I’d introduce myself in a political speech! But we have to be humble about our certainty in drawing conclusions. Some of my colleagues can quote maybe two scriptures—Matthew 25 and maybe Micah 6:8, if we’re lucky—and that’s it. First, I think we have to show biblical literacy. We have to make connections: Why are you fighting for healthcare for the poor, the disabled, and the elderly? Why are you working for food programs for children? Where does this come from?

If you can’t articulate some connection between a Torah definition of righteousness—one that focuses on how you welcome the hungry, the foreigner, the orphan, the widow, the imprisoned—and your policy priorities, don’t be surprised when religious or theologically serious people doubt the sincerity of your engagement.

Second—and I’m going to be blunt about this—the kind of liberal consensus in the Democratic Party in recent years, focused on identity and grievance, has mistakenly viewed Black and brown Americans, folks from Hispanic and African American communities, as innately and fundamentally progressive because they’ve experienced racism and oppression for centuries. What’s been missed is that enduring that oppression was largely made possible by a focus on faith. Every Black church I’ve been to in my home state of Delaware is a powerful, focused, engaged community that gets through hard things by leaning on God. Not bringing a message rooted in values—and in particular, faith—into those communities is a huge mistake. Nothing offends and annoys Hispanic and Black communities more than treating them as victims rather than as heroes who have endured oppression through the depth of their faith.

Skye: Does that speak to the inherent challenge of the Democratic Party coalition? Because, statistically speaking, Black Americans are the most orthodox Christians in the country. They attend church most frequently, they read scripture more than anyone else, and they’ve been a solidly Democratic voting bloc.

Senator Coons: I don’t know how solidly Democratic a voting bloc they are anymore.

Skye: Well, they have been historically.

Senator Coons: Yes, absolutely. 

Skye: But you’re right—that coalition includes highly religious Black Americans and white progressives, who are the least religious Americans in the country.

Senator Coons: As long as white progressives are driving the party and defining our message, we’re going to lose voters. If voters think we care more about using terms like “Latinx” or “justice-involved adolescents” or “people experiencing homelessness”—if they think the Democratic Party is just an academic lounge arguing about linguistic policing, rather than fighting for opportunity for working-class Americans—we’re going to lose them. And as long as we engage people as if they’re two-dimensional cutouts—like, “we’re for you,” but we’re not with you, we don’t hear you, we don’t share your journey—we’re going to keep losing.

Skye: Last question, because I know you need to leave—can you point to any evidence that the party is getting that message, that it’s trying to adjust, that it might be different in 2026 or 2028?

Senator Coons: There are certainly several of us trying very hard in this direction. I’ll remind you: the 2020 primaries were a real fight between the progressive and centrist wings. What catapulted Joe Biden to the presidency was South Carolina—where the Black majority of the primary voters propelled him forward. He won every single county. That wasn’t by accident. It’s because those voters had come to know Joe Biden, and they knew that he knew them.

One of our real failings in the Harris campaign—where I volunteered and worked hard—was not sharing with people that she’d been raised in a Christian household, that she’d gone to church much of her life. On election day in Philadelphia, I’m walking around with the pastor of her childhood church—who I’d never heard from or heard of before that day—and I remember thinking: We need to meet people where they are. If you want people to be excited about you as a leader, tell them about your journey. Maybe you're evangelical, maybe you're Catholic, maybe you're mainline Protestant, maybe you're a humanist, maybe you're Jewish. But tell us something about how you make hard decisions. 

The overwhelming majority of Americans are spiritual. And the overwhelming majority are uncomfortable voting for someone they know is an atheist. Poll after poll shows that Americans—especially Democrats—don’t want to be preached at, but they do want to know that in those hard moments, in the middle of the night, when you’ve got to make tough choices, you’re someone who prays. You’re someone who recognizes the transcendent. Someone who sees the image of God in others.