Democrats swept elections across the USA on Tuesday as the Republican Party lost all the gains they made during the presidential elections in 2024. Republicans also hoped to capitalise on the leftwing reaction to the Charlie Kirk assassination to register a strong performance in these off-year elections. However, there was a blowout even in races that people expected to be close. It has some important lessons for the Republican Party. And especially for the loud Christian Nationalists on social media.
The Democrat Candidate in many of these races trampled upon every issue Republicans believed would antagonise centrist voters, and even ordinary Democrats. One candidate had his private chats go viral where he was fantasising about the death of Republicans and their children. Another called Charlie Kirk a misogynist and racist right after his assassination. But the voters did not care. Both candidates won comfortably. New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill won hers by more than 13 points.
Analysis post the results show that the Hispanic Community shifted back to the Democrats in large numbers. Many had warned previously Trump’s radical mass deportation policy would dent Republican prospects with Latinos. These results are definitive proof of it. Republicans lost a lot of votes with the South Asian Community as well. There are many other lessons for the Republican Party as a whole but this article is not about those.
Here, I want to discuss the lessons that these results have to offer for the most vocal fringe group online. Yes, the Christian Nationalists, the overwhelming majority of whom are White.
Lesson #1: Half their ‘own people’ hate their ideology
Christian Nationalists often like to blame Demography for all their problems. But the results indicate that their ideology does not have many takers even among their ‘own people’. In New Jersey, 47% of Whites voted for Democrat Mikie Sherrill for Governor. 49% of Men voter for her.
Now, New Jersey is a Democrat stronghold. But they are Americans too. If Christian Nationalists want their ideology to dominate, they would need support from Christians across the country. They cannot make the argument ‘Oh they are not the Christians we want support from’. If that’s the case, then these results indicate that then they do not want support from at least half the Christians themselves. How would that work?
The same pattern can be observed in Virginia. 47% of Whites voted for the Democrat candidate. In Pennsylvania, a swing state, the three Democrat Supreme Court justices won their retention elections with more than 60% of the vote. So, it’s pretty clear that most Christians, even a resounding majority perhaps, are not gung ho about the prospects of a Christian Nationalist state.
Lesson #2: The Charlie Kirk Assassination does not matter enough to Americans
Many Republicans believed that the assassination of Charlie Kirk was a game changer. Top Republican journalists and influencers even said as much on social media. They declared that it would herald the arrival of a great Christian revival. They pointed towards data that showed Church attendance had gone up after the assassination.
Tuesday’s results would dampen their spirit somewhat. The results were a total repudiation of whatever fantasies they had cooked up in their heads. An overwhelming majority of Christians voted for candidates who had trashed Charlie Kirk. Jay Jones got elected Virginia Attorney General even after private chats emerged that showed him fantasising about the death of Republicans and their children.
There’s no sane world where Jay Jones would have won the elections. In many ways, it reveals the worst features of Democracy. Yet, Republicans could not win even against such a terrible candidate. What does that say about the Republicans themselves? Most Christians in Virginia and those from Christian families voted for a candidate who fantasises about political violence. There’s a lesson in it for the Christian Nationalists.
It’s true that Republicans did their best in trying lose whatever sympathy they gained following the Charlie Kirk assassination. In hindsight, perhaps many Republicans will agree that turning Kirk’s memorial into a campaign event was in bad taste. Some might concede in private but refrain from saying it in public that the WWE-style entry for Kirk’s widow Erika at the memorial turned a lot of people off.
Whatever be the reason, Kirk’s assassination did not really affect American culture or politics in any significant whatsoever. It’s merely a footnote in the larger scheme of things. It’s a bitter pill for many Republicans to swallow but the Tuesday results speak for themselves.
Lesson #3: Christian Nationalists do not even have the support of their families
Most Christian Nationalists in the USA, as is the case across the West, are White. Some have Hispanic roots such as popular streamer Nick Fuentes. But the movement overall is primarily composed of White Men. What is really noteworthy is that none of the popular Christian Nationalists on social media have their family’s support for their views.
Nick Fuentes revealed in one of his videos that his parents were shocked and terrified when he shared some of his views with them. Unsurprisingly, ‘Hitler is awesome’, ‘Hitler was right’ did not go down well with them. According to Fuentes himself, his parents told him, “We did not raise you like this.”
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British Christian Nationalist Hugh Anthony fared much worse. His father assaulted him and threw him out of the house when he discovered his son’s political opinions. Hugh Anthony was left begging for money from people online after he was kicked out of his home.
This is a recurring theme in the lives of most of these Christian Nationalists with major social media following. At some point they have to ask themselves. They cannot convince even their own families to join the bandwagon. Their ideology is a fringe view even among their extended families. How do they hope to convince the rest of USA? That is perhaps a question for another time.
Lesson #4: Christian Nationalists are Doomed to Fail
The Christian Nationalist movement has no allies. Major Republican voices have also come out swinging against the Christian Nationalists. Most of them are devout Christians themselves. And of course, the Jewish voices among Republicans are strongly condemning them. Ben Shapiro, in a recent video, condemned ‘Groypers’ for hating Jews, Hindus and a lot of Christians as well. He is probably the most popular Jewish voice. So what he says matters.
Furthermore, the Christian Nationalist talking points are unlikely to gain followers among people of any other race. It’s a small umbrella and they don’t want to expand it. It does not even have space for most White people. How could it have space for others?
Christians from the Black Community will never get onboard with the agenda once they see the people representing it. They, more than any other community, know what happens when the most terrible among White men get power. Given their history in USA, they will never risk it. And most of these Christian Nationalists hate the Black Community anyway. Both sides do not want each other.
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The same is the case with the Jewish Community. Both sides do want anything to do with each other. Dinesh D’Souza is a prominent Christian Conservative influencer of Indian-origin. He is very sympathetic to the Christian Nationalist cause. But after witnessing the public display of racism against Indian-Americans, even he is concerned. If push comes to shove, will he support the Christian Nationalists over others? It’s anybody’s guess.
Their best shot, perhaps, was the Hispanic Community. Indeed, it’s true that there quite a few Christian Nationalists on social media who are Latinos. But then, most Christian Nationalists crave for the deportation of Latinos from USA. They were celebrating when the Trump Administration deported scores of Hispanics.
So, it’s not a surprise that Latinos who had voted for Trump in 2024 have gone back to Democrats. So, we have a situation where no other race really supports them. And more significantly, at least half of their own race hate their ideology at a visceral level. So where does it leave their ideology?
Lesson #5: Women will end Christian Nationalist fantasies
A religious movement cannot succeeded without the support of the women of the same faith. Every poll shows that White Women are significantly to the left of Christian Nationalists. Even women who vote Republican have very liberal views compared to them. For instance, the majority of all White Americans believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
The PEW research on abortion is particularly revealing. Apart from White Evangelical Protests, the overwhelming majority of every other major religious domination supports abortion in most or all cases. It’s hard to see them getting onboard the Christian Nationalist agenda.
Now, it is safe to assume that the women of these religious dominations are more pro-abortion than their male counterparts. Abortion is only one metric to judge female support for the Christian Nationalist agenda. There are a thousand other factors at play here.
A lot of very religiously devout women could well look at the people at the forefront of the movement and decide it is not for them. And unfortunately for Christian Nationalists, the younger generations of women are a lot more liberal. The same holds true for the youth in general.
For these reasons, it is pretty obvious to anyone that Christian Nationalists in the USA are fighting a losing battle. But then, they are unlikely to read this article and take any lessons from it. Because at the end of the day I am and Indian and Hindu. What do I know?
