Early voting for the Texas primary runoff elections begins in less than a month. As Texas Public Radio reports, Christian nationalism is playing an even greater role this year in Republican politics than it has in past election cycles.
According to Christian nationalists, the United States is a country founded by and for Christians. It argues for an open and explicit role for an evangelical interpretation of Christianity in politics and policymaking.
Michael Emerson is a fellow in religion and public policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “Because Republicans have won statewide elections for over 30 years in Texas, the wind is at their sails, and the movement is to become ever and ever more towards Christian nationalism, an even more a kind of a strict version of Christian nationalism.”
Emerson says the backing of Christian nationalists behind Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Republican U.S. Senate contest is particularly strong.
He says that means the race could give Christian nationalists even more clout nationwide if Paxton wins the May 26 runoff against four-term incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, followed by a victory in the general election November 3, 2026 against Democratic challenger James Talarico.
Next month, President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission is scheduled to release its formal policy recommendations. The group is led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. He gave a sample of these policies recently when he stated, There is no such thing as [a] separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution.
Patrick issued a statement further explaining his position in which he said, "For too long, the anti-God left has used this phrase to suppress people of religion in our country." And Patrick claims this separation of church and state has been used deliberately to take away “God-given religious liberty rights away.”
But critics, including the ACLU, fear Christian nationalism has the potential to degrade or even “dismantle American democracy, establish a exclusionary, authoritarian form of government, and marginalize those who do not adhere to a specific, conservative Christian worldview.”
