2026年2月17日 上午11:07 UTC / 路透社
作者：海伦·科斯特（Helen Coster）和约瑟夫·阿克（Joseph Ax）
2月17日（路透社）- 爱荷华州参议员、路德教牧师萨拉·特罗恩·加里奥特（Sarah Trone Garriott）从未回避将信仰置于其政治竞选的核心。
今年，她是大量寻求国会席位的民主党候选人之一，这些候选人正在其竞选活动中明确融入对宗教教义的诉求。民主党全国委员会希望此举能在11月的中期选举中，将部分基督教选民从共和党阵营中争取过来。
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基督教选民长期以来一直倾向于共和党，但一些专家表示，唐纳德·特朗普总统的第二届任期政策，特别是其打击非法移民的行动，可能为民主党提供机会。
在某些情况下，民主党人本身就是神职人员或正在学习成为神职人员，包括特罗恩·加里奥特；阿拉斯加州国会候选人马特·舒尔茨（Matt Schultz）是一名长老会牧师；德克萨斯州参议院候选人詹姆斯·塔拉利科（James Talarico）是一名长老会神学院学生。
据推动进步基督教政治团体“共同善选”（Vote Common Good）的牧师道格·帕吉特（Doug Pagitt）称，今年有十多位宗教领袖以民主党候选人身份参选联邦和州级职位，远多于以往周期。
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“信仰人士在公共领域发声至关重要，因为信仰关乎我们如何共同生活，”特罗恩·加里奥特告诉路透社，“政治也是如此。”
世俗化的民主党基础
与以往许多作为民主党候选人的宗教领袖不同，包括佐治亚州美国参议员拉斐尔·沃诺克（Raphael Warnock），今年的候选人并非来自历史上一直是民主党基础的黑人教会社区。
他们正试图扭转长达数十年的趋势：上一位在国会任职的白人神职人员似乎是美国众议员鲍勃·埃德加（Bob Edgar），他四十年前已卸任。
专家表示，虽然民主党过去的杰出人物经常谈论他们的信仰——例如天主教徒、前总统乔·拜登（Joe Biden）经常讨论信仰在其生活中的作用——但这些候选人的独特之处在于，他们将宗教信仰与政策问题明确挂钩的方式。
“当你说一个候选人有宗教信仰时，大多数选民会认为他们是共和党人，比较保守，”圣母大学政治学教授大卫·坎贝尔（David Campbell）表示，“而现在你看到的是一小群民主党人正在用宗教语言谈论左翼议题。”
这种做法也伴随着风险。根据华盛顿大学丹福斯宗教与政治中心教授瑞安·伯奇（Ryan Burge）的分析，2024年特朗普赢得了83%的白人福音派选民支持，创历史新高，同时也获得了主流新教徒和天主教徒多数派的支持。
与此同时，民主党基础日益世俗化。皮尤研究中心2023-2024年的大规模调查显示，40%偏好民主党的人自称无宗教信仰，是2007年的两倍多。
“如果你是民主党候选人，实际上面临着一条相当棘手的道路，”坎贝尔解释道，“因为一方面，你有非常世俗化的选民基础，他们对宗教不太适应；但另一方面，有很多中间派选民对宗教语言持开放态度，是可以争取的群体。”
舒尔茨正在阿拉斯加州挑战现任共和党众议员尼克·贝吉奇（Nick Begich），他表示并不担心冒犯无宗教信仰的选民。
“人们对宗教的理解比我们通常给予的评价要深刻得多，”舒尔茨说。
共和党全国众议院竞选机构发言人迈克·马林内拉（Mike Marinella）驳斥了特罗恩·加里奥特和舒尔茨等候选人可能威胁共和党在基督教选民中支持率的说法。
“共和党在基于信仰的选民中多年来一直占据优势，因为我们在兑现常识性政策，而民主党却强行推行与他们自身信仰完全相悖的激进自由派愿望清单，”他表示。
信仰与政策
爱荷华州州长候选人、州审计长、路德教信徒罗布·桑德（Rob Sand）表示，他成为民主党人的重要原因是“基督教信仰就是要关爱弱势群体”。
“我不能说这是一个必胜策略，”桑德说，“但我可以说，不谈信仰，我就无法完成这场竞选。”
桑德与特罗恩·加里奥特、舒尔茨和塔拉利科等候选人一道，将其信仰与支持民主党在棘手宗教议题之一——堕胎权——上的立场联系起来。
自2022年最高法院推翻全国性堕胎权以来，这一议题在某些方面已从共和党攻击线转变为民主党优势。
舒尔茨表示，基督教经典并未明确人类生命开始的确切时间，并辩称共和党反对实际能减少堕胎的措施：更好的医疗保健、避孕措施获取途径以及扩大 childcare。
“我支持选择，不是因为我的基督教信仰，而是因为它，”他说。
“损失与悲痛”
37岁的护士亚历克斯·普雷蒂（Alex Pretti）在明尼阿波利斯被联邦特工杀害几天后，舒尔茨在安克雷奇的教堂布道时称这是“谋杀”。
“这些是本届政府的成果：谋杀、泪水、损失和悲痛，”他告诉路透社。
特朗普的移民政策日益受到一些宗教团体的审查，尤其是在联邦特工在明尼阿波利斯枪杀普雷蒂和另一名美国公民蕾妮·古德（Renee Good）之后。
“（耶稣）欢迎陌生人，喂养饥饿者，为弱势群体挺身而出，关心穷人，这是我们基督徒的使命，”特罗恩·加里奥特表示，“而现在人们看到的是……社区遭到恐吓，人们被残酷对待。”
特朗普政府官员上周在参议院委员会作证时表示，普雷蒂和古德的枪击事件需要调查。这与事件发生后立即不同，当时包括国土安全部部长克里斯蒂·诺姆（Kristi Noem）在内的官员将两人均贴上……（原文此处未完整显示）
How some Democrats are using scripture to try to reach Christian voters in US midterms
February 17, 2026 11:07 AM UTC / Reuters
By Helen Coster and Joseph Ax
Feb 17 (Reuters) – Sarah Trone Garriott, an Iowa state senator and Lutheran minister, has never shied away from putting faith at the center of her political campaigns.
This year, she is among an unusually high number of Democrats running for Congress who are infusing their campaigns with explicit appeals to religious doctrine, an effort national Democrats hope will peel away some Christian voters from the Republican column in November’s midterm elections.
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Christian voters have long gravitated to the Republican Party, but some experts say President Donald Trump’s second-term policies, particularly his crackdown on illegal immigration, could provide an opening for Democrats.
In some cases, the Democrats are themselves members of the clergy or studying to join it, including Trone Garriott; Alaska congressional candidate Matt Schultz, a Presbyterian pastor; and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian.
More than a dozen faith leaders are running as Democrats for federal and state offices this year, far more than in previous cycles, according to Doug Pagitt, a pastor who runs Vote Common Good, a progressive Christian political group.
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“It is really important that people of faith speak to issues in the public realm, because faith is about how we live together,” Trone Garriott told Reuters. “So is politics.”
SECULAR BASE
Unlike many previous faith leaders who have run as Democrats, including Georgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, this year’s candidates don’t come from the Black church community that has historically been part of the Democratic base.
They are trying to buck a decades-long trend: the last white clergy member to serve as a Democrat in Congress appears to have been U.S. Representative Bob Edgar, who left office four decades ago.
While prominent Democrats in the past have spoken about their faith – former President Joe Biden, a Catholic, often discussed the role of faith in his life – what sets these candidates apart is how explicitly they are connecting their religious beliefs to policy issues, experts said.
“When you say that a candidate is religious, most voters then assume that they’re Republican, that they’re pretty conservative,” said David Campbell, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame. “What you’re seeing now is a small group of Democrats who are using religious language to speak about issues on the left.”
The approach comes with risks. In 2024, Trump won 83% of white evangelical voters, the highest on record, while earning support from the majority of both mainline Protestants and Catholics, according to an analysis by Ryan Burge, a professor at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University.
Meanwhile, the Democratic base has become increasingly secular. Forty percent of people who prefer the Democratic Party identified as religiously unaffiliated in a 2023-24 large-scale survey by Pew Research Center, more than double the share from 2007.
“If you’re a Democratic candidate, you actually have a pretty tricky road to navigate, because on the one hand, you do have a very secular base, people who are not very comfortable with religion,” Campbell said. “But on the other hand, there are a lot of moderate voters out there who are up for grabs who are very comfortable with religious language.”
Schultz, who is challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Representative Nick Begich in Alaska, said he is not concerned about turning off non-religious voters.
“People have a more sophisticated view of religion than we often give them credit for,” said Schultz.
Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the Republican Party’s national House campaign arm, dismissed the notion that candidates like Trone Garriott and Schultz can threaten Republicans’ popularity with Christian voters.
“Republicans have dominated with faith-based voters cycle after cycle because we’re delivering on common sense while Democrats are ramming through their radical liberal wish lists that are completely out of step with their own faith,” he said.
FAITH AND POLICY
Iowa gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, the state auditor and a practicing Lutheran, said a big reason he became a Democrat was that “the Christian faith is all about looking out for the little guy.”
“I can’t tell you that I think it’s a winning strategy,” Sand said. “I can tell you that I can’t do this without talking about it.”
Sand is among the candidates – including Trone Garriott, Schultz and Talarico – who are tying their faith to their support for one of the trickiest religious issues for Democrats to navigate: abortion rights.
In some ways, the issue has been transformed from a Republican attack line to a Democratic advantage since the Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right in 2022.
Schultz said Christian scripture does not make it clear precisely when human life begins and argued that Republicans oppose steps that would actually reduce abortions: better healthcare, access to contraceptives and expanded child care.
“I am pro-choice, not despite my Christian faith, but because of it,” he said.
‘LOSS AND GRIEF’
Days after Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, Schultz took the pulpit at his church in Anchorage to call it “murder.”
“These are the fruits of this administration: murder and tears and loss and grief,” he told Reuters.
Trump’s immigration tactics have drawn increasing scrutiny from some faith groups, particularly after federal agents in Minneapolis fatally shot Pretti and another U.S. citizen, Renee Good.
“(Jesus) welcomed the stranger, he fed the hungry, he stood up for the vulnerable, he cared for the poor, and that is our calling as Christians,” Trone Garriott said. “And what people are seeing right now in so many ways … is communities being terrorized, people being treated with great cruelty.”
Trump administration officials last week told a U.S. Senate committee that the shootings of Pretti and Good would need to be investigated. That represented a departure from the immediate aftermath, when officials including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem labeled both
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