So John Kasich is an ex-Catholic

[Indy Texas]

It seems like a lot of pols who were raised Catholic but either joined a different sect or just aren't very religious try to use their nominal Catholicism as some way of communicating their "white working class" bona fides. ("My ancestors weren't Episcopalian landed gentry or Quaker/Unitarian proto-SJWs or racist Baptist rednecks. They were Irish/Italian/German/Polish/etc and dad was a union man and grandma took in washing to pay our tuition at Sacred Heart and I was an altar boy...")

And some Democrats think that being Catholic means pro-life voters can't get mad at them for being pro-choice. (See: John Kerry 2004 and various Hispanic Texas Democrats who are wobbly on the issue)

[Indy Texas]

Lean HP.

You're one to talk, Simfan, with your weird African voodoo Christianity. Everyone knows Greek Orthodox is best Orthodox.

[Indy Texas]

Pawlenty is still effectively Catholic and converted for his wife.

Kasich is barely religious.

Pretty sure Kasich, like Pawlenty and Rubio, is Catholic convert to Evangelical Christianity. Kasich's famous blow-up with big donors involved him citing religious reasons for pushing through the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.

I'm not sure whether you'd describe it as "evangelical" - he's a member of the ACNA, a group that split off from the Episcopalians as part of the Anglican realignment. Most folks classify them as "evangelical", but I understand the worship service and a lot of the theology isn't all that different from the (very, very) mainline Episcopal Church - mostly they're just called evangelical because they represent a conservative faction splintering over some hot-button social issues.

The media definition of mainline vs. evangelical is terrible. I much prefer the two-axis version I came up with.

The media thinks non-Catholic Christian who votes Republican == Evangelical Christian.

[Indy Texas]

I find it kind of amusing that there are people ITT who are that offended that a politician left their religious sect of choice and have a hard time accepting it but don't want to come across as intolerant.