Can religion help Democrats win in red states? These faith leaders hope so

Deep left-wing rootsFaith leaders running as Democrats are not new. If anything, experts say the candidates are tapping into a long lineage of religious advocacy on the left.“There have always been progressive Christians throughout American history,” said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, the vice president of programmes and strategy at the Interfaith Alliance, an advocacy organisation for religious freedom.In his work as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a research nonprofit, Graves-Fitzsimmons studies the intersection of religion and politics.He has tracked the influence of religious leaders to a range of critical moments in US history, from the civil rights movement – with figures like Reverend Martin Luther King Jr – to the push for women's rights.Even conservative groups like the Moral Majority once participated in efforts like the environmental movement, championing a Christian responsibility to engage in the stewardship of nature."Every movement that we associate with the left or progressive movement in American history has been full of Christians, as well as people of other faiths and the non-religious,” Graves-Fitzsimmons explained.Ryan Burge, a political scie...