- 8 hours ago
The 2020 election cycle involves a group of candidates with the most diverse faith backgrounds weâve ever seen. In 2018, a record number of Muslim candidates ran for public office. If elected, Bernie Sanders would be the first Jewish President. But⦠would America elect a non-Christian President? Even as a Catholic candidate, JFK faced heavy criticism. Will we see a Jewish or Muslim or atheist President in our lifetime? In this episode, we will seek to examine the ways in which religious background effects electability and how faith is leveraged as an asset or managed as a detriment in political races. With a particular emphasis on the hyper-relevant 2020 Presidential race, we will then take the conversation more local and visit a congressional candidate who identifies with a religious minority.
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00:01I get attacked because of my faith.
00:03I'm Muslim American.
00:05My name is Nibula Islam.
00:06And they're like, oh, well, we don't need Muslims in government.
00:10Or you need to get out of our country.
00:13Some person told me if I don't keep my tone down,
00:15they'll put me in a camp.
00:16Donald Trump says something insane.
00:18And then, like, my email, my social media just spikes with hate.
00:25Hopefully this isn't breaking news to you,
00:27but 2020 is a major election year.
00:29And we here at State of Grace thought it would be a great time
00:32to look at how a candidate's religious background
00:34is packaged and leveraged during a campaign season.
00:37It's no secret that Christianity is the majority religion of our representatives.
00:42While Donald Trump has embraced a base of white evangelical support,
00:45his administration has perpetuated a hostile environment for non-Christians.
00:53In spite of this divisive rhetoric and policy,
00:56we're seeing an exciting wave of change in elections at every level.
00:59Candidates of minority faiths are running in unprecedented numbers.
01:03Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib made history in 2018
01:07when they became the first Muslim women elected to Congress.
01:10They're part of a new era of representation
01:12that is younger, more progressive, and led by women.
01:16These changemakers are forging an unprecedented path to office,
01:20literally writing the book on how to run as a non-Christian candidate in America.
01:24But while this movement is gaining traction,
01:27candidates striving for change in conservative strongholds
01:30still face an uphill battle.
01:39Nabila is a working-class progressive through and through,
01:42advocating for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and reproductive justice.
01:46She quit her job to run a completely grassroots campaign full-time.
01:51A Muslim woman and a daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants,
01:54Nabila is seeking to flip Georgia's 7th congressional district and give her home
01:58the authentic representation she never saw growing up.
02:01Gwinnett is where I grew up.
02:03We have so much diversity.
02:05We're actually the fourth most diverse county in the entire country.
02:08But what does a Muslim candidacy look like in a post-Trump election cycle,
02:12especially in a county that has been red since 1995?
02:15For so long, we've never had, like,
02:18reflective representation of our diversity or our values.
02:22That's been just very evident by the fact that our community has been left behind.
02:28Is there a position that you hold that is the most, like,
02:30controversial when you talk to voters?
02:32I think when I say that ICE has no place in our communities,
02:36people are just like, whoa, that's like a strong stance.
02:39Right.
02:39ICE has really been such a terror in this community.
02:48I am running for office because I really want to give this community a voice,
02:52like a voice it's never had before.
02:54No one like me has ever run for office before in Georgia,
02:58or there's been very few in the country.
03:01This is the office, our field office,
03:05where we strategize and figure out what doors we're going to knock.
03:07Nice.
03:08And then in here is my office, where I call voters.
03:11And how many hours would you say that you spend on the phone?
03:14At least 40 hours.
03:16So of just the phone?
03:16I've called probably, up to this point,
03:18probably over, like, 65, 70,000, made 70,000 phone calls.
03:22When I was in the seventh grade, I had a drama teacher that couldn't,
03:26for the life of him, pronounce my name.
03:28He was writing out Nabila, and he went N-A-B-I-L-L-Y.
03:32Yeah.
03:33He's like, you're going to be Billy from now on.
03:35When I, you know, announced I was going to run for office,
03:38there were a lot of people that were like, oh, you should go by Billy.
03:40It's easier to say it's Southern.
03:42People would be like, oh, your name sounds foreign.
03:45I'm like, what does that mean, though?
03:46This country is a land of immigrants.
03:48Like, we all have unique names, and we're all American.
03:51I think Nabila Islam is an American name.
03:54Before a busy day of campaigning,
03:56we headed to a local diner to fuel up with Nabila and her parents.
04:00Did you grow up in this area right now?
04:03Yes. Okay.
04:03My mom, the first five years of my life, she worked at a Hardee's,
04:06flipping burgers not too far from here.
04:09And right there in the corner.
04:10So when you were in high school,
04:12were you already thinking about maybe going into politics?
04:15I actually, so when I got to college, I was a political science major.
04:18Okay.
04:19And I was like, all right, I'm going to get this political science major
04:21and like get into politics somehow.
04:24Yeah.
04:24And then I was given an assignment to interview a person in politics.
04:29So I was like, all right, I'm going to go interview my government teacher.
04:32He was basically like, well, politics is reserved for people whose parents are wealthy
04:38and so they have all those connections and it's really hard for women.
04:42Your politics teacher just came in hot being like,
04:45I'm going to burst your bubble real quick.
04:48That conversation was so pivotal in my life, more so than he will ever know.
04:53And I like changed my degree to marketing.
04:56Wow.
04:57So like that week I was like, and I remember thinking to myself like,
05:00well, I'm 18 years old.
05:01Like who am I to break this glass ceiling?
05:04Were you immediately supportive when Nabila was like,
05:06I'm going to run for Congress?
05:08Yeah.
05:11Okay.
05:11Let's rewind.
05:14She's like, wait a second.
05:15When I got involved in politics, mom was like, what are you doing?
05:18I came to this country and broke my back to give you an education.
05:22You're getting involved in campaigns.
05:24My friends actually were like, I'm not surprised.
05:27I saw this coming.
05:28Yeah.
05:28I guess the writing was probably on the wall.
05:32The race for the seventh district is tight,
05:34but Nabila has been building momentum, largely due to her rigorous ground strategy.
05:39We're going to go canvas, knock on thousands of doors,
05:42and get the word out about this campaign.
05:44My name is Nabila Islam.
05:46Nabila Islam.
05:47Nabila Islam.
05:48As a grassroots campaign, Nabila doesn't accept any PAC or corporate money.
05:52I'm running for Congress in this district.
05:54She campaigns full time.
05:55I wanted to see if you plan on voting on May 19th.
05:58Pounding the pavement, meeting voters, shaking hands,
06:01and phone banking with a committed team of volunteers.
06:05Hi, Gilda.
06:06My name is Nabila Islam.
06:07I'm running for U.S. Congress.
06:08I wanted to see what are some issues that you both care about.
06:10School.
06:11Education.
06:11Education.
06:12Good teachers.
06:13While in Congress, we'll be able to use our budgeting powers to make sure that
06:17all schools receive equal funding.
06:19We'll be supporting you.
06:20Thank you so much.
06:22Good luck with the election.
06:24I appreciate it.
06:25Nabila constantly engages in one-on-one conversations with constituents
06:29and has to be prepared to address any and all questions as they relate to her policies
06:34or her personal life, including questions about her faith.
06:38Has it been an issue that people want to discuss your faith?
06:42My name is a statement in of itself.
06:45So it comes up.
06:46You'll have some people be like, that's great.
06:48We need more Muslims in office.
06:49Or you might have someone that is just like, I'm a Christian first.
06:53And so they're not open to the idea of a person of Muslim faith being in office.
06:59I'm struck by the extreme double standard Nabila is up against
07:02just by virtue of belonging to a religion that is not Christianity.
07:05We don't see that same level of scrutiny applied to candidates who advertise their
07:09Christian affiliation.
07:11I went to speak with Dr. Andra Gillespie, a political analyst and election expert,
07:15to get a better understanding of the origins of white evangelical influence within politics.
07:21Has it always been the way that white evangelicals have been so
07:25tightly affiliated with the Republican Party?
07:27By the end of the 1970s, we start to see the rise of Christian
07:31political groups that are mobilizing around social issues.
07:35So they're mobilizing around abortion, they're mobilizing around gay rights.
07:39Faith is a branding thing for a candidate.
07:42We're just seeing how that is totally different between
07:44like a Mike Pence Donald Trump versus any candidate on the Democratic side.
07:48While President Trump has more tenuous ties to evangelical Christianity,
07:53he recognized that white evangelicals were the base of the Republican Party.
07:58It was an important base vote. And in order to keep them happy,
08:01he needs to be able to provide things for them.
08:04What Trump is doing is saying, despite all the noise,
08:07despite all the allegations of corruption, despite the immoral behavior,
08:11I'm giving you everything that you want.
08:13So therefore you have no choice but to vote for me.
08:16Andra's right. Trump's success in securing the evangelical vote
08:19seems both calculated and confusing.
08:22To better understand the nuance of his supporters, we spoke with Lisa Babbage,
08:27an evangelical whose values are strongly guided by her faith.
08:30And as such, she avidly supports Donald Trump.
08:33Lisa is also running for Congress on the Republican ticket.
08:37What role do you think faith plays in a voter choosing who they'll vote for?
08:43I really think it should be, you know, the most influence possible.
08:47Wow, okay.
08:47I do. Now, I'm not an authority on every religion.
08:51If you are a Christ follower and you call yourself a Christian,
08:54then your vote should include those things that Christ prescribed
08:58as how a government should run.
09:00Do you feel as though your Christian values are reflected
09:04in what you see in the Trump administration right now?
09:06There's a way Christians are classified, biblically speaking.
09:09You have your infancy stage, you have your toddler stage,
09:12your adolescence, and so on.
09:13I would say that, yes, we see infancy Christian behavior coming from the White House.
09:19And so that's where I see a lot of room for growth.
09:23I mean, President Trump has not been a Christian his entire life.
09:26He's the first one to say that.
09:27And so I miss the vote on a regular basis.
09:30I expect him to miss it as well.
09:31Lisa and I talked for a long time about her belief in social justice and equality
09:36and areas for growth within the Republican Party.
09:39But her support for the Trump administration was unwavering.
09:42And it seemed to me heavily influenced by a common faith.
09:45This attitude is reflected in so many right-leaning voters
09:48who are willing to overlook Trump's most troubling behaviors
09:51because of a perceived foundation in Christianity.
09:54But where does that leave us in our political process?
09:57I mean, I think in particular for Muslims after 9-11,
10:01there is the specter of Islamophobia.
10:03Will voters, you know, because of the package of a Muslim woman,
10:07will some voters be dissuaded to vote for,
10:09even if they agree with all the messages?
10:11There's certainly a privilege here that privileges Christian candidates.
10:14For somebody who is not Christian, I mean,
10:17they are in the socially more disadvantaged position.
10:20We're seeing more people run for office.
10:22We're seeing more people put themselves out there.
10:24And these folks are on the vanguard of writing the book
10:27for how one presents themselves as a candidate of faith
10:32in a predominantly Christian environment.
10:37Many of us are struggling.
10:38Many of us are from the working class.
10:40It doesn't matter if you're white, if you're black, you're brown,
10:42you're gay, you're queer, you're straight, you're trans, you're cis,
10:45you're gender non-conformed, you're white.
10:47It doesn't matter what economic background you come from.
10:50She went and she fought for those migrant families at the border.
10:52She fought for trans people's rights here in this state, in this conservative state.
10:59That's the kind of bold and progressive leadership that we need.
11:03Back at Nabila's campaign headquarters, the energy was electric.
11:07People of all faiths, races, and backgrounds showed up to support
11:10and canvassed for Nabila in their neighborhoods.
11:12Democratic Socialism seeks to do what the Bible said,
11:16to redistribute the wealth that is laid up for the wicked to the just.
11:21Democratic Socialism seeks to feed the hungry,
11:24to clothe the naked, and to care for the sick.
11:26The politics of law is what Jesus preached when he said that healthcare was a human right,
11:33that whosoever was seeking healing should be healed.
11:37That's the politics of law.
11:40I want to introduce you to Nabila Islam!
11:49Growing up here, I never saw anyone that looked like us at the table.
11:54Anyone that reflected our values or diversity.
11:57And because of conservative ideologies, our community has been left behind.
12:02We are tired of the same old, same old politics that tell us to just wait,
12:06wait a little bit longer, not yet.
12:09We're tired of incrementalism.
12:12We want change now!
12:13Yeah!
12:15Today, let's take all of our love and all of our heart.
12:20Everyone into our love movement!
12:24In many ways, Nabila's campaign kicked into a new gear,
12:27just as our time together came to a close.
12:31As she continues to earn endorsements, public support and recognition,
12:35I'm honestly on pins and needles as we approach election day this spring.
12:39It's not hard to feel invested in someone so committed to giving their district not only
12:43the representation it deserves, but representation they've never had before.
12:47She was the youngest person ever in Virginia to ever get elected.
12:53During this tumultuous time in American politics,
12:56Nabila is on the front lines of challenging a broken system.
13:00I've always wanted to be a public servant, ever since I was a little girl.
13:03I just never thought I was electable.
13:04Because my name is Nabila Islam, and I just thought people would be not ready for that.
13:10I think people around the country want to see themselves in their elected officials.
13:13The country is ready for representation.