Fear and Hate Won, But Gains Were Made by the Humanist & Atheist Community in the 2024 Election Cycle
Photo by Heidi Kaden on Unsplash Editor’s note: This article was updated on December 9, 2024 to reflect new results on late-called races.
To the dismay of the humanist and atheist community, fear and hate won the 2024 election. Voters who supported Donald Trump did so for a wide variety of reasons; however, the core supporters who made his campaign possible are the xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, bigoted, anti-science, and homophobic crusaders of White Christian Nationalism. With control of the White House, Supreme Court, Senate, and House of Representatives, the implementation of their vision for America, as described in Project 2025, will have few institutional barriers, but we are not powerless.
“Fighting the Trump administration won’t be easy, but we’ve done it before and we will do it again. Our movement—the humanist movement—has always stood for justice, equality, and a future shaped by empathy and reason. This is our legacy. We’re gearing up to respond to this, to fight in every way we can, and we’re calling on you to be part of that effort with us,” said Fish Stark, executive director of the Center for Freethought Equality and American Humanist Association.
We also have more members of our community in elected office.
The Center for Freethought Equality, the political and advocacy arm of the American Humanist Association, applauds the successes of humanist, atheist, agnostic, and nonreligious candidates like Carlos Guillermo Smith, who won a seat in the Florida State Senate; Heather Goulding, who won a seat in the Nevada State Assembly; Brian Close, who won a seat in the Montana State House, Sarah Keyeski, who won a seat in the Wisconsin State Senate, and Frank Burns, who won a seat in the Delaware State House.
They will join members of the humanist and atheist community who won re-election like Athena Hollins, a state representative in Minnesota; Jon Rosenthal, a state representative in Texas, Heather Meyer, a state representative in Kansas; Chris Rabb, a state representative in Pennsylvania; Julie Mayfield, a state senator in North Carolina; and Jared Huffman, a member of the U.S. Congress from California. A full list of the Center for Freethought Equality PAC’s 2024 endorsements and their election results can be found here.
The Center for Freethought Equality is proud of all the humanist, atheist, agnostic, and nonreligious candidates who ran for office this year, and the growing engagement of our community in the political process.
These elected officials did not just happen to publicly identify with our community. The Center for Freethought Equality does extensive outreach to candidates and elected officials to show that there is a humanist and atheist community to support them, demonstrate that being their authentic selves will not end their careers, and encourages members of our community to run for office. Our elected officials will work against the efforts of White Christian Nationalism to build a future for a safer, saner, stronger, and more secular America. More than a quarter of our country’s population identifies as religiously unaffiliated, and we are making our values known at the ballot box and are running for—and winning—seats in public office.
I want to express special gratitude and admiration to Sarah Henry and her campaign for the Florida State House. She demonstrated tremendous courage, commitment, and poise in the face of outrageous, ignorant, and bigoted attacks by the Republican incumbent. Republican State Representative David Smith’s re-election campaign focused on Sarah Henry’s humanist activism and misrepresenting her work for the American Humanist Association. The attacks were so misleading that the local NBC affiliate ran a news segment countering them. The Republican incumbent did win re-election, but Henry earned an impressive 49.6% of the vote. In 2022, when Henry ran against Smith and her humanist activism was not used against her, she earned 47.7% of the vote. Her increase in the percentage of the vote, clearly demonstrates that the taboo against our community running for office is gone; however, in such a close race the margin of victory may have been swayed against Henry because of the diminished but still lingering bias against our community.
With the taboo gone, we can continue to expand our participation in the electoral arena and by having more respected leaders publicly identifying with our community the lingering bias will continue to diminish. Prior to the 2016 election there were only five elected officials serving in state legislatures who publicly identified with the humanist and atheist community. After the 2016 election that number grew to seventeen, forty-seven after the 2018 election, sixty-three after the 2020 election, and seventy-two after the 2022 election. Once the newly elected officials are sworn into office in 2025, there will be seventy-eight humanist and atheist elected officials at the federal and state level serving in thirty states (see below). A list of current and former humanist and atheist federal, state, and local elected officials can be found here.
This election cycle also produced an exciting first for our community, the Center for Freethought Equality had an exhibit booth at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Our booth had a steady stream of enthusiastic visitors who eagerly took our buttons, stickers, and other informational materials. We signed up new members and were visited by elected officials who identify with our community and by our endorsed candidates. Exhibiting at the DNC reinforces that the atheist and humanist community is a visible, engaged, and important political constituency.
“We’re excited to see more humanists, atheists, and agnostics elected to public office. First, because everyone in our country deserves to see themselves reflected in their leaders. Second, because of our commitment to reason, compassion, and respecting the inherent and equal worth of all people: humanists make damn good policy,” said Fish Stark, executive director of the Center for Freethought Equality and American Humanist Association.
“When my father, Rep. Pete Stark, came out as the first openly humanist and atheist Member of Congress, there was only one member of our community serving openly in a state legislature. Now there are more than seventy-five in thirty-three states across the country. And that’s due to the work of our thousands of members, donors, volunteers, and of course our staff, who have been working to build political power and support for political leaders who identify with our community.”
“When humanist public servants are open about their true beliefs, they help dispel stereotypes and create a culture where everyone is respected, no matter their religious convictions. For any humanists, atheists, and agnostics serving in public office who haven’t publicly acknowledged their beliefs: There’s never been a more important time to be open and advance tolerance and inclusion for all.”
I also want to give special thanks to Hemant Mehta (the Friendly Atheist) for his great reporting that facilitated the creation and the continued expansion of the list of humanist and atheist elected officials.