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analysis
In order to win the important midterm elections, the two US parties are pulling out all the stops.
Feb 19, 2026, 7:53 p.mFeb 19, 2026, 7:53 p.m
MAGA officials and evangelicals have a symbiotic relationship. Under the slogan “Make America Pray Again” they mean that the USA should transform itself into a nationalist Christian theocracy. That’s why Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently invited preacher Doug Wilson to hold a service at the Pentagon. He represents views such as: Women should be subject to their husbands again and lose their right to vote again.
The fact that Donald Trump is not really a product of Christian virtues does not bother evangelicals. They adhere to the principle that the ways of the Lord are unfathomable. “God can do whatever he wants – and we should finally have recognized that he occasionally wants to accomplish glorious things with the most unlikely materials,” the preacher Wilson explains to the soldiers.
However, evangelicals and MAGA do not have a monopoly on Christianity. There is also a liberal, even progressive version of this, for example with James Talarico, an aspiring young politician from the state of Texas.
Rising star in the US political sky: James Talarico.Image: keystone
The 36-year-old Talarico has become a national figure in recent days. As a Democrat, he wants to win one of the two Senate seats in Texas and has a good chance of doing so. According to polls, he is ahead in the primaries. That’s why Stephen Colbert invited him to his late night show, but was not allowed to broadcast the interview. However, it was posted on YouTube, with great success. More than six million viewers have now seen it.
Talarico is a kind of Christian Robin Hood. On the “Ezra Klein Show,” a New York Times podcast, he said things like: “Economic justice is mentioned 3,000 times in the Bible. It is a pillar of our tradition, but the Christian nationalists don’t mention it at all.”
The former Sunday school teacher also demands that sentences such as “Money is the root of all evil” should not be hung on the school walls. He would find the saying appropriate for the New York Stock Exchange: “It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven.”
Talarico sees Jesus as a barefoot revolutionary. He was “strong, tough, confrontational, and became aggressive when people were hurt,” he told Ezra Klein, adding that such behavior was occasionally appropriate in contemporary American society.
The moderate version of a Christian Democrat is Andy Beshear. He achieved the feat of being elected governor twice in Kentucky, a state that Trump won three times by a landslide. That’s why he’s now being considered a possible Democratic presidential candidate.
Possible presidential candidate: Andy Beshear.Image: keystone
Not only does Beshear regularly quote from the Bible, but he will also have a book coming out next fall in which he will detail his connection between faith and politics. His publisher already says: “Beshear will explain what faith means to him, how that faith has changed his family and his public life – and it will be a response to how Donald Trump and others have taken faith hostage, besmirched, abused and corrupted.”
The coming midterm elections will be historic. It’s about nothing less than the future of American democracy and the rule of law. Trump and the Republicans also know this, and they also know that – as of today – the Democrats will not only win the House of Representatives in a fair election, but will even have a chance of gaining a majority in the Senate.
They also know that in this case Trump would be reduced to a lame duck and even impeached a third time. That’s why they do everything they can to prevent a fair election. In the House of Representatives, Republicans pushed through a law that requires everyone who wants to cast their vote to prove that they are an American citizen. A passport or birth certificate is considered proof.
Only half have a passport
What may seem banal to us does not apply to the USA. Only about half of all Americans have a passport and not all of them – especially women who have taken their husband’s name – have access to their birth certificates. Experts therefore see this law as an attempt to primarily suppress the voices of black people.
The law is also completely unnecessary. Voter fraud is extremely rare in the USA. This is even shown by the database of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. “It contains just 99 cases of electoral fraud since 1982. For comparison: more than 150 million votes were cast in the ballot box in 2024 alone,” notes David Graham in the “Atlantic”.
Nevertheless, Donald Trump has already demanded in an interview that the elections must be controlled nationally, at least in the so-called swing states. This clearly contradicts the Constitution, which clearly states that the conduct of elections is the responsibility of the individual states.
Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, immediately picked up Trump’s ball and said she would ensure his demands were implemented. Noem – she is not the brightest candle on the Trump cake – unintentionally explained what it is really about: “We want to proactively ensure that the right people elect the right leaders for this country on election day.”
Tulsi Gabbard is also proactive. The head of all secret services was personally present a few weeks ago when the FBI confiscated voting documents in Fulton County, a suburb of Atlanta in the state of Georgia. There is no apparent reason for this action. Apparently Trump still cannot come to terms with the fact that he lost this state to Joe Biden in 2020 and that even Republican representatives refused to give him the 11,780 votes he would have needed to win.
Tulsi Gabbard at the FBI operation in Fulton County.Image: keystone
The FBI action can therefore only be interpreted to mean that the predominantly black voters in this constituency are to be prevented from casting their votes in the midterm elections and that if a Democrat wins, the voting machines can be confiscated.
There is already strong resistance to this. Robb Pitt, head of the Fulton County Election Commission, told the New York Times: “We will use every means at our disposal to fight those who want to take away our right to vote. Our constitution is at stake in this fight.”