Many Faith Voters Defend Democracy in Midterm Elections

Many Faith Voters Defend Democracy in Midterm Elections

Many Faith Voters Defend Democracy in Midterm Elections
Evangelicals 4Democracy Makes the Connection to Religious Values

Washington, DC; November 9, 2022– What happens when white and Hispanic evangelicals who collectively represent 45 million citizens learn that democracy and faith go hand-in-hand?

A new campaign called Evangelicals4Democracy shows that engaging faith voters through inspirational messages about preserving democracy can counter the disinformation that leads to radicalization and support for Christian nationalism.

Launched in August 2022 as a non-partisan, nonprofit 501c3 organization conducting pro-democracy education, Evangelicals 4Democracy (E4D) directly engaged over 50 million faith voters through a 3-month email and digital advertising campaign, which included delivering over 2.2 million ad impressions with messages defending democracy as an act of Christian faith. In response, over 70,000 evangelicals clicked through the campaign’s website or took social media actions to sign an online 4Democracy pledge in English and Spanish supporting such democratic principles as access to the ballot box and the peaceful transfer of power.

At the same time, E4D directly confronted Christian nationalism as a threat to democracy, mounting a digital ad campaign with search and display ads reaching evangelicals on 1,300 alt-right and Christian websites. This strategy netted over 200,000 ad impressions, including 50,000 impressions on websites and mobile apps that have “Bible” in their title. Additionally, the campaign promoted a series of video ads in English and Spanish on TikTok and YouTube asking, “Was Judas the First Christian Nationalist?” The Spanish version, “Fue Judas El Primer Nacionalista Cristiano?” has garnered over 477,000 views on You Tube since early October.

“What we learned from the 2022 midterm elections is that Americans care about democracy and many

spurned election deniers and candidates linked to Christian nationalism,” said the Reverend Richard Cizik,Executive Director of Evangelicals4Democracy. “But the 2022 election was at best a reprieve fordemocracy. The forces behind authoritarianism and Christian nationalism are well-funded, organized, committed and have strong tentacles through evangelical churches.  I have lived overseas under authoritarian rule, which included martial law, and want my fellow believers to reject extremism, autocratic tendencies, the ‘big lie’ and election denialism, as well as appeals to resentment and anger.”