WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

In the two and a half months since Pete Buttigieg announced that he’s exploring a presidential bid, the 37-year-old South Bend mayor has embraced a fraught figure in Democratic politics: God. “We need to not be afraid to invoke arguments … on why Christian faith is going to point you in a progressive direction,” he recently told USA Today . ...

It’s a departure from Democratic politics of the recent past: Hillary Clinton struggled with how to feature her faith in her 2016 presidential campaign, and Barack Obama often found himself doing battle with religious groups during his presidency.

But over the long months ahead for 2020 Democratic hopefuls, rhetoric alone won’t be enough to win votes. Candidates, including Buttigieg, must decide whether faith outreach will be a central part of their campaign strategy and a deliberate feature of their platforms. In other words: Democrats must choose whether religion is a potential asset, or something to be overcome . ...

This is where 2020 Democratic hopefuls may be learning from past failures. The day after Clinton conceded defeat in the 2016 election, The New York Times’ Amy Chozick reported an illuminating anecdote: Early in her campaign, Clinton had been asked to speak at a prominent St. Patrick’s Day event at the University of Notre Dame, but declined because “white Catholics were not the audience she needed to spend time reaching out to.”