Democrats meet with religious leaders after successful midterm vote

by Rebecca U. Cho
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON — Hoping to capitalize on Democrats’ midterm election gains, leaders of the Democratic National Committee met Nov. 30 in the first of a series of sessions with faith leaders to discuss ways the party can make further inroads in the religious community.

     Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D.-MN, the first Muslim elected to Congress, and DNC Chairman Howard Dean were at the meeting, as well as evangelical speaker and author the Rev. Tony Campolo, and political strategist Mike McCurry, who served as President Bill Clinton’s press secretary.

     Democratic leaders acknowledged that they have been absent from faith discussions for too long and vowed to get more involved in issues important to people of faith, said some of the 50 religious leaders who attended the event.

     “In overtly reaching out to the religious community, Democrats have been behind the curve,” said Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim, a Conservative synagogue in Alexandria, Va., who attended the meeting. “We have not been comfortable speaking the language of faith in the public sphere.”

     “We hope these folks will become a permanent fixture — a council of advisers of sorts,” DNC spokeswoman Amaya Smith said.

     Campolo said Democratic speakers struck a conciliatory tone for their past treatment of religious voters — a group that has traditionally been the bedrock of the Republican Party.

     “Democrats have for a long time ignored the religious community — they’ve written it off,” Campolo said. “Now they’re saying, ‘We’re not a secular party. We’re in harmony with the religious community.’”

     Democrats this year won a majority (55 percent) of the Catholic vote, according to exit polls. They winnowed the GOP lead among weekly churchgoers — the GOP’s advantage fell to 12 percentage points, down from 18 points in the 2004 congressional races. Republicans maintained their hold over white evangelicals with 70 percent of their votes, but less than the 78 percent they carried in 2004.

     McCurry said gaining votes is important to Democrats, but Democrats also want to engage religious voters in authentic discussions.

     “We are a political party. It is about getting votes,” McCurry said. “But we can also proudly proclaim our faith without being shy about it. We want to be intentional about raising the faith perspective.”