Polite company or not, religion and politics mix on Super Tuesday
Politically left-leaning members of Nashville’s faith community will be pulling the Democratic ballot on Super Tuesday.
As this significant election day arrives, the religious beliefs of voters and presidential hopefuls continues to be a part of discussions surrounding the thinning Democratic field.
Tennessee is one of the 14 states, along with a lone territory, where voters will be making their picks for the best Democratic candidate to take on President Donald Trump and lead the country.
For the Rev. Kira Austin-young, an Episcopal priest who supports LGBTQ equality and reproductive rights, the choice is between Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
“I think they both really represent a care for the marginalized and the vulnerable,” said Austinyoung, the priest-incharge at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in East Nashville. “That speaks to me as a person of faith.”
Voting for the best candidate to beat Trump
But for Cindee Gold, this year’s primary election is all about picking the candidate she thinks has the best chance of defeating Trump. So Gold, a member of The Temple, a Reform Judaism congregation in Nashville, is voting for former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
“He is a very imperfect candidate,” Gold said. “I have never considered myself anti-republican and I don’t consider myself anti-republican now, but I am anti-trump. I am 100% anti-trump.”
Neither Gold nor Austin-young require the candidates they vote for to be particularly religious people. Their views on a candidate’s beliefs are more nuanced than that.
Gold wants them to share her moral values, like being kind to immigrants and respecting a woman’s right to make choices about her body.
“I don’t need someone to be religious per se. I don’t care if they’re Christian or Jewish, but Israel does not drive me . ... What drives me is being kind to our fellow man and being kind to the Earth,” Gold said.
Austin-young also wants the candidates she picks to share the values that are influenced by her faith.
“It does make me feel better to know that these are people who are for the most part involved in religious communities and are sensitive to those issues and needs of people of faith,” Austin-young said.
Most Americans do not see Democratic candidates as very religious, survey says
Some of the Democratic candidates have talked about their own religious beliefs on the campaign trail and debate stages. However, a recent Pew Research Center poll shows that most Americans do not see them as particularly religious.
The survey only looked at former Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic; Sanders, a Jew; Warren, a Methodist; and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, an Episcopalian, who dropped out of the race on Sunday.
Biden was the most likely to be considered somewhat or very religious with 55% of Americans saying as much, the survey shows. Thirty-six percent of Americans viewed Warren as somewhat or very religious, 34% saw Sanders that way and only 32% said the same about Buttigieg.
Republicans were less likely to view the four
Democratic candidates as religious, the survey states. And white evangelical Protestants, who often vote Republican, were, too.
Black Protestants, who regularly support Democratic candidates, were more likely to see Biden, Sanders and Warren as religious, but not Buttigieg, the survey shows.
Those survey results did not surprise Kent Syler, a political science professor at Middle Tennessee State University and a former Democratic congressional aide for former U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon.
“Just like politics, religion has become very polarized,” Syler said by email. “White evangelicals are an important part of the Republican base and most have little use for the pro-choice, PROLGBTQ, pro-immigrant, Democratic brand.”
Compared to Republicans, Democrats historically have shied away from interjecting their religious beliefs into politics, Syler said.
“This makes them appear to not value religion to many voters,” Syler said. “Democratic candidates need to be more willing to talk openly about their faith and how it impacts their policies if they hope to win over voters who put a high value on election leaders who share their faith.”
Democrats should be working to attract voters in the political center and just to the right of it too, Syler said.
Campaigns make stops in Tennessee ahead of Super Tuesday
In the immediate runup to Super Tuesday, six of the campaigns made stops in Tennessee. Bloomberg, Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota all showed up in person. Biden, Sanders and Warren each sent surrogates.
Buttigieg dropped out of the race on Sunday, and Klobuchar did the same on Monday.
On Wednesday, the historically black Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church in Nashville hosted a Sanders campaign rally featuring his wife, Jane Sanders.
The church, which has a long tradition of being active in justice-related issues in the community, does not endorse political candidates, but the congregation and church leadership do think it is important to help educate the electorate, said the Rev. Aaron Marble, senior pastor of the church. Marble also does not endorse candidates, but he said he does see a need for more progressive policies in the U.S.
Ahead of Super Tuesday, Marble said he was not seeing a consensus for any particular candidate among voters in his circles.
“I’ve seen a large spectrum within the black community,” Marble said.
Biden has familiarity among black religious voters, Marble said, but he does not think they are in love with him. Marble also has seen a rise in support for Bloomberg and some early success for Sanders.
“As a whole for black religious voters, we won’t really be able to tell what that looks like until Super
Tuesday results are in,” Marble said. “I believe whoever gets the Democratic nomination I think the black electorate, the religious electorate will support that candidate over our current president.”
Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean .com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @Hollya Meyer.