Religious landscape of new Congress features noticeable partisan differences

The religious makeup of the 119th Congress will be little changed from the previous term, although 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 around 95% of lawmakers across both the Senate and House identifying with a religious faith. The rest either are nonreligious, 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 just under 70% of Americans affiliating with a religious faith.

“Congress represents America as it looked 20 or 30 years ago, not the way it looks today,” said Ryan Burge, a professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University who has written on religion in politics.

“Incumbency advantage keeps people in office that were elected… some of them in the ’80s, in the ’90s, when America was overwhelmingly a religious country.” Burge said. “In some ways, it’s just kind of like it’s a good snapshot of the generational difference in American religiosity.”

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

An overwhelming majority of Republican members – 98% – identify with Christianity. In contrast, 75% of Democrats or those who caucus with them do the same, with a larger variety of faith traditions represented in the minority party, as well as nonreligious beliefs.

Burge pointed to the “God Gap,” or the longstanding idea that the GOP is already seen as the 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 turns off almost no one in their party.”

Democrats, however, not only have more secular supporters, but also a more diverse religious base, Burge said: “Muslims and Black Protestants and Latino Catholics ... basically, everyone who’s not a white Christian is, by and large, a Democrat.”

Christians remain dominant

Protestant Christians, from across the denominational spectrum, continue to make up the majority of religious adherents in Congress in either party, with small deviations. Slightly more Episcopalians and Methodists are Democrats, and while Baptists overall lean Republican.

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

The GOP, however, is home to a wider variety of Christian denominations, including several evangelical and Pentecostal traditions not found among Democrats. All nine Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, in Congress are Republican, as are roughly three-quarters of the 93 members who identify as nondenominational Christians or simply as “Christian.”

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

Neither party or chamber has an exclusive claim on elected clergy. Incoming North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Harris is a Baptist pastor. So is Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who preaches at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford, a retired youth pastor, served as the Senate’s guest chaplain on Dec. 20 after the hospitalization of Chaplain Barry Black.

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

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

Non-Christian members

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

In contrast, 66 out of 262 Democratic lawmakers or those who caucus with them do not identify as Christian. Twenty-eight are Jewish, including independent Sen. 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 is unchanged, at three.

The number of Hindu members will double from two at the start of the previous Congress to four. This includes incoming 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 nonreligious. Incoming Washington Rep. Emily Randall told CQ Roll Call to list her religion as “none,” while future Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona identifies as agnostic. California Rep. Jared Huffman remains Congress’ only self-identified nonreligious humanist.

Another 21 Democrats did not specify a religious affiliation to 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 make anybody mad,’” he said. “For the Republicans, it’s ‘if I don’t say I’m Christian, I will make a lot of people mad.’”