Would a white evangelical Democrat have any trouble winning the Dem nomination?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm talking about solely because of that. Let's imagine sometime in the future we have a candidate running for the Democratic nomination who is a white evangelical. To take it even further, let's assume that s/he was not raised in that and converted from Catholicism or a mainline denomination. However aside from that s/he is a pretty mainstream and normal Democrat with standard liberal positions on all the issues.

Would that fact alone cause any serious issues for the candidate or would it be a non-issue?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm talking about solely because of that. Let's imagine sometime in the future we have a candidate running for the Democratic nomination who is a white evangelical. To take it even further, let's assume that s/he was not raised in that and converted from Catholicism or a mainline denomination. However aside from that s/he is a pretty mainstream and normal Democrat with standard liberal positions on all the issues.

Would that fact alone cause any serious issues for the candidate or would it be a non-issue?

why are you so obsessed with white fundie dems.

"Evangelical" does not mean "fundamentalist".

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Also let's assume the Republican opponent in a general election is sort of a generic Republican, socially conservative but not fundamentalist or heavily associated with the religious right. Think Chris Christie without his other defining features.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Clinton wasn't a convert, like in my scenario.

BRTD, when you say evangelical, what kind do you mean? Are they a Clinton style evangelical or more of a religious left candidate?

Think a pretty standard Democrat that just happens to be an evangelical. Closer to religious left then I guess.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I doubt "soccer moms" would revolt much, consider that Obama might go to a mainline church, but he definitely came off as evangelical-sounding and in style in 2008 at least. And being white definitely isn't a disadvantage over him to soccer moms.

Another interesting question is what if they were a convert from Judaism. Would this anger some Jewish voters and cause them to do worse with the Jewish vote, or would they do a bit better because they'd still be ethnically Jewish and would probably still have some cultural ties? I'm really not sure.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I doubt "soccer moms" would revolt much, consider that Obama might go to a mainline church, but he definitely came off as evangelical-sounding and in style in 2008 at least. And being white definitely isn't a disadvantage over him to soccer moms.

I think I misunderstood what you meant when you described the candidate. I had a white Jesse Jackson in my head

Yeah I'm thinking very generic D. So more like white Obama. Or an evangelical version of Hillary Clinton.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This guy says hello

And let's not forget our first evangelical president.

Is this map going to happen today?



That said though it is notable that there has never been an evangelical Republican president, or even evangelical Republican presidential candidate and only once an evangelical Republican VP candidate.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Bush and Reagan most certainly weren't though. I don't think anyone would count Hillary Clinton as an evangelical Democrat if she was nominated and she belongs to the same church as Bush (UMC). Reagan was actually raised in a liberal but evangelical-ish denomination growing up (Disciples of Christ), but was a mainstream Presbyterian most of his life. Reagan was never much of a religious right politician anyway, just a political opportunist (he signed one of the most permissive abortion laws in the country pre-Roe v. Wade as Governor after all.)

Actually something else fairly notable, though credobaptism is associated with evangelicals, the last Democratic President baptized as a baby is JFK. However every Republican President after JFK except Reagan was likely baptized as a baby.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

How is this thread defining "Evangelical"?

Here's what I think of evangelicalism as:

-Sola scriptura and sola gratia
-Belief in memorialism in regards to communion.
-Preference of credobaptism over paedobaptism.
-Rejection of a very formal organized hierarchy.
-Rejection of overt ritualism and legalism (yes this is one that many evangelicals don't uphold well, especially conservative ones.)
-Rejection of sacraments and rituals as a needed component for connection to God.

I know many might disagree and might add some points or think some of mine are not important, but I am pretty insistent that it is ludicrous to define the key factor in if someone is evangelical or not to be social conservatism or liberalism, which has essentially become it in modern day America.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Those are examples of what I'd consider conservative mainline churches.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Enough to vote against them though? Imagine typical secular Jewish voters havibg to choose between an ex-Jew liberal Democrat and someone like Rick Santorum.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Engel's not an idiot. He's not going to throw away his House seat and political future over such a trivial cosmetic issue. Also Jews make up such a small percentage of the population any such campaign wouldn't have any funding or infrastructure which doesn't help for ballot access.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Engel's not an idiot. He's not going to throw away his House seat and political future over such a trivial cosmetic issue. Also Jews make up such a small percentage of the population any such campaign wouldn't have any funding or infrastructure which doesn't help for ballot access.

In fact any attempts by anyone to attack the Democrat over this would probably help them and bring sympathy. It reminds me of Rudy Boschwitz's letter to Minnesota Jewish households in 1990 attacking Paul Wellstone for marrying a non-Jew and not raising his kids Jewish. The backlash against that may have cost Boschwitz the election.