Category: Government

Yahoo News: Democratic pastors run to reclaim Jesus from Trump’s Republicans.

Malcolm FOSTER
Sat, July 11, 2026 at 6:30 PM PDT

A band of white Democratic pastors have a striking message ahead of November’s US midterm elections: Republicans have hijacked Jesus for political gain, and we’re not going to stand for it.

For decades, it’s been a truism that Republicans have cornered the Christian market — at least when it comes to white voters.

But these ministers are so fed up with President Donald Trump, and particularly his policies against immigrants, that they’re running as Democrats in November to rein him in.

“The Christians we’re hearing in Washington don’t reflect the Jesus of the Gospels,” one of the insurgents, Adam Hamilton, told AFP.

As the head of a 24,000-member Methodist megachurch in a deeply conservative, rural area of Kansas, Hamilton would typically fit the profile of a right-wing Republican Christian.

However, along with support for fiscal responsibility and a strong military, the 62-year-old Hamilton backs legal access to abortion and protecting LGBTQ rights in his campaign for the US Senate.

Citing the “crassness and mean-spiritedness” of Trump’s presidency, he said what’s happening in Washington is “inconsistent with the values that I’ve preached for 36 years.”

“I want to stand up and be heard saying: ‘This is not OK.'”

– What insults Jesus? –

Democrats have a long tradition of clergy in politics, but predominately among African Americans.

In Congress now, there’s Senator Raphael Warnock, who leads Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr was pastor.

But the last white, Democratic pastor in Congress was Bob Edgar, a Methodist minister representing Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1987.

Now, in these midterms, no fewer than seven white clergy or ministers-in-training representing the Democratic Party are vying for congressional seats.

From Iowa, Texas, Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas and Tennessee, they’re mostly political newcomers. Three of them are women.

But they’re united in aiming to reclaim the Bible from Republicans and using Christian teaching to support more liberal policies on immigrants and the poor.

Perhaps the most prominent is James Talarico, a 37-year-old Presbyterian seminarian running for a Senate seat in Texas.

In a staunchly conservative, Republican-led state, his Scripture-laden speeches have helped him make deep inroads.

“You want to know what insults Jesus? Kicking the sick off health care while cutting the taxes of billionaires,” Talarico said in one speech.

– Religious Democrat? It’s OK –

One reason Republicans have dominated the white Christian electorate is that Democrats have gradually shifted from being identified as the party of the working class to a secular elite where religion can be unfashionable.

Indira Duggirala, co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Interfaith Council, acknowledged that there has been a “vacuum in that religious space in Democratic politics.”

The emergence of these faith-oriented candidates — which she said happened organically — “is not an unwelcome change.”

“It’s OK to be a Democrat and be religious,” she told AFP, while emphasizing that government must be secular.

For many Democrats, as well as many Christians, Trump’s MAGA movement and the rise of Christian nationalism have been alarming.

There’s been particular revulsion at the way Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth holds Pentagon prayer meetings and uses stridently religious language to justify the US war against Iran.

“Christian nationalism is one of the biggest threats to democracy in the United States,” said Robb Ryerse, an evangelical pastor who is vying for a congressional seat in Arkansas, another predominantly red state.

But Ryerse, 51, and others in the Democratic Christian pushback say they are ready to right wrongs.

“We need people of faith to stand up and say the United States has a separation of church and state,” Ryerse said, describing one aspect of his mission as helping to “clean up the mess” made by fellow white Christians on the right.

If he wins, Hamilton would be the first Kansas Democrat elected to the US Senate since 1932 — and he says he’s ready to make that history.

“It’s time,” he said. “I think we’re going to do it. There are a lot of people out there who are saying we need change.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Platner Rape Allegations Look Like a ‘Political Hit’ Job

Tuesday on ABC’s “The View,” former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner could be the victim of a “political hit job” after a rape allegation from 2021 surfaced.

Co-host Sara Haines said, “Congresswoman we were talking before you came out about Graham Platner and the very serious allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman back in 2021, an allegation he denied. More and more prominent Democrats are calling on him to end his campaign, should he?”

Greene said, “You know, I don’t know anything about his policies. I just started learning about him yesterday when I saw this blow up. However, I do know what establishment political hit jobs look like.”

She continued, “And I really wish women — when a woman is raped, it’s extremely serious. And I stand behind women that are raped — and I ended my political career on that, by the way — and I wish women would come forward. The most important thing a woman can do is come forward and report a rape, not report it years later when someone is running for office.”

Haines said, “You know that does mostly happen in sexual assault because it’s very difficult for victims to come forward.”

Greene said, “Oh, of course yes.”
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Tom Homan: Blue Sanctuary States Hiding Dangerous Illegal Migrant Truckers

Trump border czar Tom Homan says that Democrats’ sanctuary city policies are shielding thousands of illegal migrant truckers amid a federal crackdown.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov)
Homan said that the Department of Homeland Security and Trump Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy are doing a great job rooting out and cancelling the CDLs that states had given to illegals during the Biden years, but he noted the task is mostly being performed among red states while blue states are actively preventing federal officials from having access to state DMV databases.

“We’ve removed thousands of aliens with CDLs, we’re working very closely with many states. DHS is working hand in hand with Sean Duffy and his department,” Homan told Fox News, adding, “So, the problem is we’re working very well with red states, blue states are still struggling, right? Places like New York, I mean, ICE and CBP can’t even get access to the DMV database to run the checks.”

Homan then blasted blue state sanctuary laws.

“So, you know, the continuation of sanctuary states, sanctuary cities, you know, thank God Todd Blanche is suing these cities as they come up and we’ve got to keep suing them,” he said.

“But we’re out there, enforcing law,” he said, “We’re out there looking for these illegal aliens with CDLs. In the last five days, ICE has arrested over 10,000 illegal aliens, which is a record for the agency.”

Homan also noted that ICE is moving into trucker weigh stations across the country to grab up illegal alien truckers.

“Actually, in some states we are actually working in weigh stations with the troopers trying to get these people coming through, so, it’s a work in progress,” Homan said.

The efforts to remove illegal aliens from the nation’s truck driver pool comes after a growing number of Americans have died in accidents on the nation’s highways at the hands of truck drivers who are ill trained and often don’t even speak English and cannot read road signs.

For example, an illegal alien from Uzbekistan named Bekhzod Asrarov, 42, was arrested after he reportedly hit and killed a 21-year-old American named Tobby Forsythethis month. Officials say that Asrarov cannot speak English and medical personnel had to use Google Translate to communicate with him at the accident scene.

Also this month, an illegal alien from Haiti was driving a commercial vehicle on I-81 in Schuylkill County when he ran down Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira, Jr., who was performing a roadside safety inspection on another semi.

The truck that slammed into the vehicle Trooper Pahira was inspecting was reportedly being driven by 33-year-old Haitian migrant Michael Bon, who entered the country in 2024 thanks to Joe Biden’s extension of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. Bon’s status was revoked in 2025 by the Trump administration and the migrant was informed that he had to leave the country at the time. Despite that, Bon was working as a commercial truck driver with a Massachusetts driver’s license, according to reports.

In yet another case, a Sikh migrant driving a truck in Chicago ran down a motorist who was attempting to change a flat tire on the side of I-80. Police determined that Kulgeet Kang, 34, was on his cell phone when the stranded motorist was killed and that Kang did not stop after running the man down and killing him.

These are just a few examples of the dozens of cases resulting in the deaths of Americans on the roadways at the hands of illegal alien truckers.

DHS slams Spanberger’s sanctuary policies after twice-deported Illegal immigrant from El Salvador charged with rape in Virginia

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“This criminal illegal alien has been charged with rape and abduction. He has a laundry list of prior convictions for aggravated assault, destruction of property, and drug possession, as well as prior arrests for identity theft and larceny,” Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said.

An illegal immigrant accused of kidnapping and raping a woman in Northern Virginia had previously been deported from the United States and amassed a lengthy criminal record before his latest arrest, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Fairfax County Police recently arrested Juan Arevalo on charges of rape and abduction. According to DHS, Arevalo is a citizen of El Salvador who is in the country illegally. ICE has lodged an immigration detainer and is requesting that Fairfax County transfer him into federal custody rather than release him from jail if he becomes eligible. DHS says Arevalo has an extensive criminal history dating back decades. According to the department and court records, he has previous convictions for aggravated assault, attempted maiming, destruction of property, assault, illegal reentry, drug possession, obstruction of justice, failure to appear and making a false report, along with prior arrests for abduction, identity theft and larceny.

“This criminal illegal alien has been charged with rape and abduction. He has a laundry list of prior convictions for aggravated assault, destruction of property, and drug possession, as well as prior arrests for identity theft and larceny,” Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. “DHS is calling on Governor Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians in Fairfax County to commit to not releasing this dangerous criminal from jail, and to instead turn him over to ICE custody so that we can remove him from our nation and end his crime spree in our country. Virginia sanctuary politicians need to stop playing Russian roulette with American lives and work with ICE law enforcement to keep criminals out of our communities.”

According to DHS, Arevalo entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 1991. He was convicted of destruction of property in 1998, deported in 2003, and later convicted of illegally reentering the country in 2013. “Governor Spanberger’s reckless sanctuary policies have made Virginia a hotbed for illegal alien criminals,” a DHS spokesperson said. “The stories of the victims and facts speak for themselves. So far in 2026, illegal aliens have allegedly committed the majority of all murders in Fairfax County. It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live in the United States of America. When you break our laws, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”

In January, Fairfax County Police arrested Arevalo after a high-speed chase on Interstate 495. Police said he abandoned his vehicle and fled on foot before being apprehended on outstanding warrants, including abduction and assault on a family member. Arevalo was also facing an assault charge in Prince George’s County, Maryland, after Fairfax County police planned to extradite him earlier this year. That assault charge was also later dropped. “These are serious charges and our office is committed to prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law and the evidence. He is currently being held,” prosecutors said.