Same faith, different politics: Washington's Christian voters divided in the midterm contest

In the south of Washington state, Christian voters want to vote their values, but a common faith does not mean a common politics. Conversations with churchgoing voters around Longview and Battle Ground ahead of the midterm elections show a clear divide.

At least two-thirds of the members of Longview United Pentecostal church, pastored by 38-year-old Ron Peterson, are Latino, Asian, Black or of multiracial backgrounds, according to Peterson. He recalled how area residents rallied after an industrial accident at the local paper mill killed 11 people in May. 'We can all come together,' he said. 'There's not going to be sections in heaven.'

Peterson, who works full time in sales while pastoring, believes people like him - white Christian heterosexual men - have become targets. He said he was called into a meeting with human resources after singing a Christian hymn at work; the report noted that his account could not be independently verified.

Peterson gives President Donald Trump high marks in many areas while criticising his lack of fiscal discipline, saying that from the standpoint of fiscal responsibility Trump has probably done worse than almost any president. But when Trump's felony conviction in the New York business-records case and the jury that found him liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll were raised, Peterson brought it back to the Supreme Court - the justices Trump appointed, whose 2022 Dobbs decision overturned Roe v Wade, which he called very important.

Faith has also featured in the neck-and-neck contest for Washington's third congressional district around Longview. The Democratic incumbent, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, faces Republican John Braun in one of the nation's most-watched House races. Both candidates have drawn on religion to connect with voters: Braun has defended expressions of religious and conservative speech on college campuses, while Gluesenkamp Perez, whose father served as an evangelical pastor, attends a Capitol Hill Bible study.

Daniel HoSang, a Yale University professor who studies race and conservative political movements, said that for some, the idea of America as a Christian nation means protecting their freedom to practise their faith in a country they believe was founded on Christian values. For others, he said, it means something more far-reaching: a country where Christianity occupies a privileged position in government and public life, at the expense of people of other faiths.

In the nearby city of Battle Ground, 41-year-old dietitian Laura Oltmann expressed concern about religion's growing influence in local politics and the treatment of immigrants under Trump's administration. Oltmann, a Ridgefield resident and registered independent who grew up in a conservative Christian family, studies the Bible regularly and attends a small church of between 100 and 150 members that meets in a school near Battle Ground.

Oltmann said she does not like being Christian being conflated with holding a particular set of political beliefs. 'I don't really like that we're conflating being Christian with being politically religious. Those are different things,' she said. She also rejects the idea that the United States has a special claim to Christianity: 'I don't believe that America is, like, God's kingdom on Earth.'

The tension is particularly evident in her views on abortion. She supported Gluesenkamp Perez in 2024 despite the congresswoman's support for abortion rights. She questioned the consistency of opposing abortion while resisting government programs that support children and families, arguing that standing for children's lives must also mean standing for their growth and development.

As a healthcare professional, Oltmann has also been troubled by Trump's immigration crackdown; at one point, she said, there was concern that ICE would come into the hospital. She ultimately voted for Gluesenkamp Perez because the congresswoman strikes her as 'pretty middle of the road', the same place she puts herself.