Beto O’Rourke may benefit from an unlikely group: white evangelical women - Polidicks

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/us/politics/texas-beto-orourke-evangelicals-women.html DALLAS — After church on a recent Sunday, Emily Mooney smiled as she told her girlfriends about her public act of rebellion. She had slapped a “Beto for Senate’’ sticker on her S.U.V. and driven it to her family’s evangelical church. But then, across the parking lot, deep in conservative, Bible-belt Texas, she spotted a sign: the same exact sticker supporting Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat who is challenging Senator Ted Cruz. Listening to Ms. Mooney’s story, the four other evangelical moms standing around a kitchen island began to buzz with excitement. All of them go to similarly conservative churches in Dallas. All are longtime Republican voters, solely because they oppose abortion rights. Only one broke ranks to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But this November, they have all decided to vote for Mr. O’Rourke, the Democratic upstart who is on the front line of trying to upend politics in deep-red Texas. In the Senate race, one of the most unexpectedly tight in the nation, any small shift among evangelical voters — long a stable base for Republicans — could be a significant loss for Mr. Cruz, who, like President Trump, has made white evangelicals the bulwark of his support. To Democrats nationwide, who have largely written off white evangelical voters, it also sends a signal — not just for the midterms but also for the 2020 presidential campaign — that there are female, religious voters who are open to some of their party’s candidates. The women, who are all in their 30s, described Mr. O’Rourke as providing a stark moral contrast to Mr. Trump, whose policies and behavior they see as fundamentally anti-Christian, especially separating immigrant children from their parents at the border, banning many Muslim refugees and disrespecting women. “I care as much about babies at the border as I do about babies in the womb,” said Tess Clarke, one of Ms. Mooney’s friends, confessing that she was “mortified” at how she used to vote, because she had only considered abortion policy. “We’ve been asleep. Now, we’ve woke up.” Ms. Clarke, who sells candles poured by refugee women in Dallas, began to weep as she recalled visiting a migrant woman detained and separated from her daughter at the border. When an older white evangelical man recently told her that she couldn’t be a Christian and vote for Mr. O’Rourke, Ms. Clarke was outraged. “I keep going back to who Jesus was when he walked on earth,” she said. “This is about proximity to people in pain.” At times, however, their support feels hush-hush. A few of their other friends who support Mr. O’Rourke are married to men who support Mr. Cruz and have refused to let them speak about it publicly. One friend said she wanted to protect her marriage, and worried she’d be “crucified, burned at the stake” if people found out, Ms. Clarke said. Unlike many other Democratic candidates ahead of the midterm election, Mr. O’Rourke is doing strategic, if limited, outreach to white evangelicals, especially women. On his way to his concert with Willie Nelson in Austin recently, he recorded a podcast segment with Jen Hatmaker, a Christian author whose prominent show “For the Love” is followed by tens of thousands of evangelical women. The episode is scheduled to air Thursday. The whole notion of the evangelical female voter is fatally flawed,” she said, listing a slew of issues important to women in her community, like ending white supremacy and the culture of sexual assault. “What I hope for Ted Cruz is that he is paying attention to an opponent that has managed to capture the collective imagination of Texas in a state where our vote is a foregone conclusion.” These evangelical women may seem invisible, Ms. Hatmaker said, but they dot the state, and reflect a broader dissatisfaction among some Christian conservatives that their faith has been politicized for what they see as an agenda that opposes what Jesus represents. But Ms. Hency believes that more evangelical women are upset with Mr. Cruz than he might think. “What Trump did was almost give us permission to take back nuance,” she said. “That’s why it’s a tossup now.”

When an older white evangelical man recently told her that she couldn’t be a Christian and vote for Mr. O’Rourke, Ms. Clarke was outraged. Old white men trying to control people through religion, welcome to America.

Bush Secdef Donald Rumsfeld was chairman of a pharmaceutical company called Gilead Sciences and Trump's next SCOTUS pick is part of a Christian sect that used to call it's highest rank for women handmaiden.

The irony of unironically trying to make real the failed Christian theocracy depicted in a novel by a feminist Canadian writer.

Remember how everyone was terrified the pope would have proxy rule over America when JFK took office?

A few of their other friends who support Mr. O’Rourke are married to men who support Mr. Cruz and have refused to let them speak about it publicly. lol wtf?

This is no exaggeration. Being a democrat in a largely conservative evangelical family gets me comments like these. A few days ago, the kavanaugh thing got brought up, and they asked me "Are you even Christian?", as if democrats and christians are mutually exclusive.

I'm sure there's a nice fat dose of No True Scotsman in there as well. Completely ignorant of the recent history of Christianity, where in Darwin's time the idea of evolution was not controversial, as it was seen as very possibly being God's plan (set the world in motion and allow life to adapt to it). Where science and knowledge was considered not only entirely compatible with belief in God but prized. Now, creationism is a nearly-enforced belief in American Christianity, and because creationism is disproved by basically every branch of science ever to exist, creationism must be anti-science, so a significant portion of religious conservatives distrust science. GREAT

I always found this really weird, as a whole lot of socially progressive movements in the twentieth century were led by religious figures. Tommy Douglas in Canada was a baptist minister who was largely responsible for our adoption of socialized healthcare, for instance. There's a major argument to be made that faith groups could be a force for progressive action on major social issues, and I always find it heartbreaking that the American right gets so much support from them.

Beto needs as much support as he can get. We need to get Ted Cruz out because I am sick of being represented by the zodiac killer who is scared of dyed hair and Tofu.

John Boehner called Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh"

How can we forgot the famous quote. “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) Even his whole fucking party hates him. I think the only people that like him are rural Texans and thats because they don't know any better and he has an R next to his name.

I can't think of a graceful way to lead in to it but this article is a great read on the subject of religious support for the American right

And after all this Cruz still bent the knee to Trump. Absolutely zero spine.

It seems like it's gonna take some really weird turnout for Beto to win. Hopefully it happens

Interesting, but not really surprising. For some reason women have an interesting tendency of staying put when men shift hard to the right. There's been a noticeable difference in voting habits by gender since 1980, with men tending to favor the conservative candidate, and the last presidential election was tied for the highest gender voting gap with the 1996 election.

if cruz is bleeding evangelical women then we might see some swing the polls can't collect because they aren't going to get evangelical women to answer truthfully.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article219732670.html Cruz canceled a debate with O'Rourke so he gets an hour of free TV exposure. Cruz was born in Canada while O'Rourke is an El Paso native and has visited every one of Texas's 255 counties, go Beto.

What's up with Ted and his, presumably unintentional, tendency to just give Beto free publicity? First he roasts (???) him on Twitter when he posted a clip of Beto speaking to a group at a church on how police officers show prejudice towards African Americans and how he'll address it, now he's giving him an hour to speak about his plans - completely unopposed - on the most viewed left-leaning news agency in the country. No wonder Ted's colleagues hate him, he seems like a complete moron.

Ted is weak and spineless. His “attacks” are ineffective and sometimes even beneficial against his adversaries. Same for when he tried to win the nomination for presidency. In fact, all of Trump’s opponents were bland and/or cowardly, with Ted being especially weaselie. I hope he loses Texas as hard as his lost the primaries.

Honestly even if I despise their views on abortion, I respect these women a fuck ton for sticking to what they truly believe in and not just switching their beliefs as soon as Emperor Trump or whatever other conservative figure they look up to just to fit to the current trend. I'm so sick of people just caving to whatever someone else says just to be able to stick it to the libs and make it so their side is winning. Shits depressing man.

ted is basically what happens when you run in the safest place for your party, you can act like an idiot and as partisan as you want. that's what is happening with my district where my congressman isn't even campaigning while he's scheming to be the next speaker of the house.