On the day after the primary elections and caucuses of Super Tuesday, the Initiative hosted a roundtable on Faith and the Faithful in the 2020 Presidential Primaries. This timely session examined the ways religious values and voters are shaping the race for the White House and the broader political environment in the United States during this election year.
This Initiative roundtable included Donna Brazile, former interim national chair of the Democratic National Committee; Timothy Carney, commentary editor at the Washington Examiner; Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, a senior researcher at Pew Research Center; Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., columnist for Religion News Service and author; and Eugene Scott, Washington Post political reporter.
The diverse group of political leaders, journalists, and analysts discussed:
- What have we learned so far about the role of religion and the choices of religious voters in the 2020 election? Who is talking about their faith, why, how, and to what effect?
- How are candidates and religious communities addressing moral issues of abortion, immigration, religious liberty, poverty, and care for creation in the 2020 campaign?
- How are campaigns reaching out or neglecting Catholic, evangelical, Latino, and African-American religious communities, and how are those diverse communities responding?
- What are key choices and challenges surrounding faith and politics for believers, candidates, and parties?
Featured
- Donna Brazile is the former interim national chair of the Democratic National Committee, a Fox News political commentator, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
- Timothy Carney is the commentary editor at the Washington Examiner and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse.
- Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac is a senior researcher at Pew Research Center where she contributes to the center’s domestic religion polls and other reports, including “America’s Changing Religious Landscape” and “The Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the United States.”
- Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., is a columnist for Religion News Service, former editor of America, and author of numerous books on the organization of the Catholic Church.
- Eugene Scott is a political reporter for the Washington Post’s The Fix, a former fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, and a former breaking news reporter for CNN Politics.
Mo Elleithee, director of the Institute of Politics and Public Service, opened the gathering. John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, moderated the roundtable.
This roundtable and series was co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and Institute of Politics and Public Service and was supported by the Democracy Fund.
