Mainstream religious affiliation is on the rise, and has been for a number of years (PRRI, GSS) and the median age of a white evangelical Protestant is higher than any other denomination.
I did not know that, and it surprises me frankly.
The study had a flawed methodology. It considered all people who self-identify as Christian but not as Evangelical or Catholic to be mainline. So what is almost certainly actually happening is younger non-denominational Christians who don't like labels are getting lumped into their "Mainline" category. There has not been any kind of corresponding increase in membership in mainline denominations.
This is purely anecdotal, but one thing I have noticed is there's a tendency for Millennial Democratic politicians to belong to liberal churches that they converted to. For example this woman (who went kind of viral in Minnesota political circles recently for her anti-vax takedown tweets) has a surname that doesn't exactly scream "cradle Episcopalian" (it's hyphenated but neither one does) and went to a Catholic university. And Xochitl Torres Small even if she was a Blue Dog was raised Mormon but is also an active member of an ELCA Lutheran church that she was fairly vocal about as well. Just two examples but I've noticed others.
Of course one could also argue that Millennial politicians are more likely to attend church and convert than Millennials in general even if they are liberal, as attending church is a form of civil engagement, and more civic engaged people are more likely to get involved and run for office.
"Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn" may not sound like the name of an Episcopalian, but it absolutely does sound like the name of a woman who graduated from St. Thomas with a degree in something that doesn't sound academic and lives in the southwest suburbs now. It's the name of someone who works in marketing at Target whom you see in the skyway at lunchtime among a group of other women who look exactly the same. (She herself doesn't look exactly like that, though.)
Anyway, beyond the reasons that the sort of person who might go into politics would also be the sort of person to join a church, it's clear that church membership is in itself helpful for candidates. Membership in a church (or other religious congregation) brings with it a built-in group of supporters, and it also suggests moral values and rootedness in the community, both of which are real assets.
I was going to make a joke about with how she looks I'm surprised she's married to a man, but then remembered she kind of resembles a woman at my church who is also married to a man. That hairstyle is obviously not uncommon on straight women, it's just that they
usually tend to be either college aged or middle aged.
FWIW my very evangelical cousin's daughter just started attending the same university this month and it's obviously not a "Catholic only" place, but upon a quick search it appears
her father passed away in 2019, (quite sad as he wasn't really that old) and received a Catholic funeral. So her background is obvious.
But in regards to the last point: absolutely. And an Episcopal church in Edina is exactly the sort of place to look for DFL primary voters in Eden Prarie, as well as previously Republican voters who adamantly refused to vote for Trump but were still willing to vote Republican downballot initially but after two years of Trump were open to even voting out a pro-choice/pro-same sex marriage/pro-marijuana legalization incumbent who had never had a competitive race in the past, like who she narrowly defeated in 2018. Also while she won by 10 points in 2020 and the seat is basically Safe D now that's still a significant underrunning of Biden who carried it by 25 points. And an Episcopal church in Edina is also the sort of place one could expect to find people at least open to split ticket voting.
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