Democratic pastors seek to challenge Republican hold on white Christian voters

Several white Democratic pastors and ministers-in-training are running for congressional seats ahead of November's US midterm elections, saying Republicans have used Christianity for political gain and that President Donald Trump's policies, especially on immigrants, conflict with their religious values.

At least seven white clergy members or ministers-in-training are seeking congressional seats as Democrats in Iowa, Texas, Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas and Tennessee. Most are political newcomers, and three are women. They say they want to use Christian teaching to support more liberal policies on immigrants and the poor.

Adam Hamilton, who leads a 24,000-member Methodist megachurch in conservative Kansas, is running for the US Senate. Hamilton supports fiscal responsibility and a strong military, but also backs legal access to abortion and protections for LGBTQ people. He told AFP that the Christian voices he hears in Washington do not reflect the Jesus of the Gospels and said the tone and policies of Trump's presidency conflict with values he has preached for 36 years.

James Talarico, a 37-year-old Presbyterian seminarian running for a Senate seat in Texas, has used Scripture in campaign speeches in the Republican-led state. In one speech he criticised cutting health care access while reducing taxes for billionaires.

Democrats have a history of clergy in politics, especially among African Americans. Senator Raphael Warnock leads Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor. AFP reported that the last white Democratic pastor in Congress was Bob Edgar, a Methodist minister from Pennsylvania who served from 1975 to 1987.

Indira Duggirala, co-chair of the Democratic National Committee's Interfaith Council, said there had been a vacuum for religion in Democratic politics and said the emergence of faith-oriented Democratic candidates was not unwelcome. She also said government must remain secular.

Robb Ryerse, an evangelical pastor running for a congressional seat in Arkansas, said Christian nationalism is one of the biggest threats to US democracy. He said one part of his mission is to support the separation of church and state and to respond to what he described as wrongdoing by white Christians on the political right.

Hamilton would be the first Kansas Democrat elected to the US Senate since 1932 if he won. He told AFP he believed many voters wanted change.