Walz, Vance, and the New Christian Politics

Although religious language has largely disappeared from both parties’ platforms since 2004, appeals to faith from presidential hopefuls are ubiquitous in American politics.

“It would be very difficult to be the president without believing,” President George W. Bush remarked in 2004.

In this regard, vice presidential candidates are no different. Both Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) and U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) credit faith as a significant influence in their personal and political outlooks. This is certainly nothing new for those pursuing the office, but both Walz and Vance represent novel models of Christian politics that will likely continue gaining traction.

Walz, originally from Butte, Nebraska, grew up Roman Catholic, like many other descendants of German immigrants in the prairie. Walz has credited his Catholic roots for informing his passion for social justice and reminisced to The Independent about his parents’ infatuation with John F. Kennedy. Walz converted to Lutheranism, the largest faith community in Minnesota when he married his wife, Gwen. 

Since he has been a figure in Minnesota politics, Walz has described himself as a member of Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) parish. At Pilgrim Lutheran, whose website has mostly been made private since Walz’s rise to national prominence, the Lord’s Prayer begins with “our guardian, our mother,” Christ’s exclusive divinity is denied, and participation in riots is encouraged.

This sort of extreme theological liberalism is not unexpected in the ELCA and matches Walz’s progressive record. Still, Walz’s evocation of being a “Lutheran dad” or a “good Minnesota Lutheran” is a nod to the folksy mainline image currently prevalent in the Democratic party. Much like Obama’s evangelical left or Biden’s liberal Catholicism, the current tenor of the campaign seeks to speak directly to rural white mainline voters, who Democrats hope can stymie former President Donald Trump’s historically strong performance with the white working class. If the Harris-Walz ticket succeeds, Walz will be the second Lutheran to occupy the White House, the first being another Minnesotan, Hubert Humphrey. 

Vance, who gained national prominence after the success of his book, Hillbilly Elegy, elevated him to something of an Appalachian working-class whisperer. As recounted in his memoir, Vance was raised an evangelical but did not consider himself a participant in any religious community for much of his adult life. 

Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019, citing the writings of St. Augustine, Rene Girard, and the friendship of several Catholic intellectuals as primary factors in his conversion. His admiration for Augustine’s intellect and political philosophy was so great that he chose Augustine as his confirmation name. In an interview with Rod Dreher, Vance credited the Catholic faith with his conservative politics and skepticism of the free market. 

Since his conversion, Vance has grown close to the Catholic illiberalism that has become chic on the American right. Vance has appeared at conferences alongside Adrien Vermuele, the mind behind much of American integralism, and counts postliberal Patrick Deneen as a personal friend.

Although Vance’s connections to fringe political philosophy may seem irrelevant, Vance’s model of illiberal intellectual Catholicism is novel on the mainstream right. The broad, fusionist, ecumenical Christian conservatism of Reagan and Bush has now been rivaled by a starkly different picture of what an America led by Christians ought to look like, one less concerned with school prayer and more concerned with Thomas Aquinas.

The Constitution does not grant broad powers to the vice president, and the vice president is far from one of the most important individuals in American life. Nevertheless, the person and personality of the vice president are a signal to the public of the campaign’s values. Trump’s selection of Governor Mike Pence (R-IN) in 2016 was a nod to traditional Christian conservatives, who Trump at the time made uneasy. Then-Senator Barack Obama’s (D-IL) selection of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) in 2008 was intended to be a stabilizing message, paired with the ambitious “hope and change” of his running mate. 

Walz and Vance are no different. Walz’s down-home liberal faith is a message to the rural working class that the Democratic Party has not forgotten them. Vance is a signal to the various strands of illiberal thought on the margins of the GOP that it is time to come off of the message boards and into the halls of power. Regardless of the election outcome, the ascendance of homespun mainline Protestantism and bookish Catholicism as identifiable brands of Christian politics is likely to continue.