When James Talarico walked onto the stage in Austin on election night, the first thing voters saw was not a policy chart or a party logo. It was a placard that read “Love Thy Neighbor.” Hours later, the Texas Democrat had beaten Republican Ken Paxton in one of the most expensive Senate races in American history — and faith flipped the midterms in ways few pollsters had predicted.
Religion was supposed to be a side issue in the 2026 midterms. Instead, it turned out to be one of the main stories of the night. From Texas to Kansas to Ohio, candidates who spoke openly about their faith won races that were supposed to be out of reach, while voters who had backed Donald Trump in 2024 drifted away in large numbers. The results have left both parties rethinking what faith means in American politics — and who gets to claim it.
How Faith Flipped the Midterms in Texas
Talarico’s win was the night’s biggest shock. A Presbyterian seminarian and the grandson of a Baptist preacher, he made scripture a central part of his campaign in a way that is rare for a white Democrat in Texas. He quoted the Bible on the trail, talked about his training for the ministry, and built his closing message around the idea of loving one’s neighbor — a line aimed squarely at voters unsettled by aggressive immigration enforcement and the war in Iran.
His opponent had the money. President Trump had nicknamed him “Talafreako,” and billionaire Elon Musk spent nearly $230 million backing Paxton. None of it was enough. In his acceptance speech, Talarico reached for the story of David and Goliath — a shepherd boy with a slingshot against a giant — and told the crowd that the people of Texas had been his slingshot.
“We went up against our own Goliath — the richest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world and the entire D.C. establishment,” he said. “You were my slingshot. The people of Texas were my slingshot. And tonight, we defeated Goliath.”
Experts say the faith-first message worked precisely because it was hard to attack. “Talarico was absolutely perfect as a candidate for Texas because he had a way of speaking that came from his background of training as a Presbyterian minister,” said Frank Lacopo, an assistant professor of history at Southeast Missouri State University. “He was able to use Christian messaging in a way that couldn’t be countered by Republicans.”
A Record Seven Muslims Elected to Congress
The night also made history in a very different way. A record seven Muslims were elected to Congress nationwide, including Dr. Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, who became the nation’s first Muslim U.S. senator. The number could still rise to eight, depending on the outcome in California’s 14th Congressional District, where Democrat Aisha Wahab’s race remained undecided.
El-Sayed’s path was not easy. During the campaign, Trump dismissed him as a “jihadist” and accused him of links to terrorist groups, both without evidence. Others criticized him for what they saw as a failure to denounce antisemitism strongly enough. But voters in Michigan responded to a different message — one built around affordability and everyday costs rather than identity.
“It really seems like El-Sayed’s more secular messaging on affordability was more effective,” Lacopo said. “What he showed people in Michigan was a vision of an American who happens to be Muslim.”
Exit polls conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations found that 86 percent of Muslim voters backed Democratic candidates. The Iran war, the economy, rising Islamophobia and Israel’s war in Gaza ranked as their top concerns. “Rising Islamophobia strengthened their motivation to vote,” the council said in a statement, adding that many Muslim voters “remain unconvinced that either party listens to their concerns.”
Catholics Swung Away From the Republicans
Perhaps the most consequential shift of the night came among Catholics, who make up about a quarter of the American electorate. According to NBC News exit polls, just under half of Catholics backed Republican candidates in the midterms — a steep fall from the 59 percent who voted for Trump in 2024.
The swing was sharpest among Hispanic Catholics in Texas, where the administration’s immigration enforcement appears to have cost Republicans dearly. “You did see some rejection of Republicans, especially with Hispanic Catholics in Texas,” said Michael Moreland, director of the Eleanor H. McCullen Center for Law, Religion and Public Policy at Villanova University. “Especially along the South Texas border, aspects of the administration’s immigration enforcement alienated a lot of voters. President Trump in 2024 peeled off a lot of those voters, but he lost them Tuesday night.”
Kelsey Reinhardt, president and CEO of Catholic Vote, a conservative advocacy group, said the shift reflected broader frustrations. In 2024, she said, Catholic voters largely believed Trump would be a stronger defender of Catholic values. This time, some felt betrayed by broken anti-war promises, while anti-abortion voters felt the president had not done enough to advance their cause.
“The Catholic vote is soft Republican when there’s a Republican who advances their ideals,” Reinhardt said. “But they swing back when they feel their values are not being met. The Iran war was a factor too, but I’m not sure whether it’s an issue because it was declared immoral by the pope or because people didn’t want a forever war.”
The Catholic story played out at the state level too. In Virginia, local bishops led a furious campaign against ballot measures expanding abortion rights and removing the state constitution’s definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. The measures passed anyway. “700,000 Catholics in Virginia won’t overturn the majority there,” Reinhardt admitted.
What the Exit Polls Actually Showed
The NBC News exit polls tell a story of broad movement, not just one group. Jewish voters backed Democrats by 68 percent — down from the 78 percent who supported Kamala Harris in 2024, but still an overwhelming margin. “Donald Trump said voters should pretend he was on the ballot in the midterms, and Jewish Americans did just that,” said Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “Jewish voters are not a monolith, but they widely disapprove of Donald Trump.”
Among religiously unaffiliated voters, support for Republicans fell to 20 percent, down from the 27 percent who backed Trump in 2024. Slightly fewer Protestants and other Christians supported Republican candidates than in 2024.
The results in Kansas added to the pattern. Democrat Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor, flipped a U.S. Senate seat there. In Ohio, Democrat Amy Acton was elected the state’s first Jewish and first female governor, with her Judaism informing her progressive platform.
Even the way faith reaches voters is changing. Lacopo pointed to the Catholic Church’s growing presence online, noting that many Americans began following Vatican News when Leo XIV — the Chicago-born pope — took office. “It’s important not to underestimate the power that Catholic church messaging on social media has on Catholics,” he said. “Even if they’re not practicing Catholics. A lot of Americans began to subscribe to Vatican News when Leo became pope, and they identify with him as an American.”
Faith Was Also Used as a Weapon
Not all of the night’s religious story was uplifting. In Michigan and Texas, opponents ran Islamophobic attack ads against Muslim candidates, and Talarico faced blistering criticism from conservatives who attacked his progressive Christianity. The attacks appear to have backfired, energizing the very voters they were meant to scare away.
Still, the campaigns exposed a fault line that is unlikely to disappear. Religion in American politics has long been treated as Republican territory — the language of evangelicals, churchgoers and values voters. Tuesday night suggested that assumption is breaking down. Democrats fielded candidates who spoke the language of faith fluently, and voters responded.
“I’m surprised and not surprised at the same time that Democrats have taken so long to latch on to that,” Lacopo said. “Even if you’re a secular voter and don’t practice religion, you can relate to the second part of that message” — loving your neighbor.
What This Means for 2028
One election does not settle a question as old as American politics. But the midterms offered a warning to both parties. For Republicans, the lesson is that a coalition built in 2024 on Catholic and Hispanic voters is fragile when those voters feel their values are not being met — on war, on immigration, on the cost of living. For Democrats, the lesson is that faith is not a liability to be hidden but a language millions of voters still speak.
Trump, for his part, is already weighing his next move after the midterm defeat, and the war in Iran — one of the issues that drove voters to the polls — remains unresolved. The candidates who won on Tuesday did so by talking about neighborliness, affordability and peace. Whether either party can hold onto that message for the next two years will shape the 2028 race.
What is clear is that faith is no longer a quiet undercurrent in American elections. In 2026, it was the headline — and it helped decide who governs.