Continued Gains for Humanists and Atheists in the 2022 Election
The humanist and atheist community continued to see electoral gains in the 2022 election. Once the newly elected candidates are sworn into office in early 2023, there will be seventy-two elected officials who are public about their humanist, atheist, and nonreligious identity serving in Congress and state legislatures in thirty states. 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, and sixty-three after the 2020 election.
The list of elected officials who identify with our community can be seen at the end of this article. These public servants use a variety of identifiers from our community including: humanist, atheist, agnostic, secular, nonreligious, culturally Jewish, secular Buddhist, religiously unaffiliated, and spiritual but not religious. All share the values of our community for a pluralist democracy, the separation of church and state, social and economic justice, and evidence-based public policy.
More than a quarter of our country’s population now identifies as religiously unaffiliated, and we are making our values known at the ballot box and are running for office. As the atheist and humanist community becomes more involved in the political and electoral arena, we will help create a safer, saner, stronger, and more secular America.
The Center for Freethought Equality, the political and advocacy arm of the American Humanist Association, applauds the successes of humanist, atheist, and agnostic candidates like Monique Priestley, who won a seat in the Vermont State House; Bob Carter, who won a seat in the Montana State House; and Elinor Levin, who won a seat in the Iowa State House. They will join members of the humanist and atheist community who won re-election like Howard Watts, a state representative in Nevada; Megan Hunt, a state senator in Nebraska; Juan Mendez, a state senator in Arizona; Julie Mayfield, a state senator in North Carolina; and Jared Huffman, a member of the U.S. Congress from California. We are also very pleased that Eric Sorensen, who identifies as spiritual but not religious, won a seat in the U.S. Congress from Illinois’ 17th Congressional District. These, and many other, candidates were identified and supported by the Center for Freethought Equality’s political action committee (PAC), the Freethought Equality Fund. Become a member of the Center for Freethought Equality–membership is FREE–at cfequality.org/membership to learn about the activities of the PAC and the candidates it supports.
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. The Center for Freethought Equality website has information on how you can increase your political engagement and how to run for office.
A list of current humanist and atheist federal, state, and local elected officials can be found here. The newly elected humanists and atheists will be added to this list once they are sworn into office in early 2023. In addition to the federal and state elected officials this list includes over thirty local elected officials. If you are, or know of, humanist and atheist elected officials who are not on this list please let CFE know using this form.
Nadya Dutchin, executive director of the Center for Freethought Equality and the American Humanist Association, said, “As the humanist and atheist community continues to grow and becomes more engaged in the electoral arena, including serving in public office, our nation’s public policies will reflect the values of our community to prioritize social, economic, and environmental justice using evidence-based solutions. Building political power for the humanist and atheist community will establish a more equitable and sustainable future for America.” Dutchin continued, “Our open participation will also increase the visibility of humanists and atheists and help remove the lingering bias that still exists against our community.”
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. You can see his articles at onlysky.media/hemant-mehta.
2023 Humanist, Atheist, and Nonreligious Elected Officials
U.S. House of Representatives
Jared Huffman (CA-2)
Eric Sorensen (IL-17)
Arizona State Senate
Juan Mendez (District 8)
Arizona State House
Melody Hernandez (District 8)
Jennifer Longdon (District 5)
Athena Salman (District 8)
California State Assembly
Alex Lee (District 24)
Colorado State Assembly
Judy Amabile (District 49)
Chris Kennedy (District 30)
Karen McCormick (District 11)
Jennifer Parenti (District 19)
Brianna Titone (District 27)
Stephanie Vigil (District 16)
Connecticut State Assembly
Josh Elliott (District 88)
Roland Lemar (District 96)
Delaware State House
Paul Baumbach (District 23)
Eric Morrison (District 27)
Florida State House
Anna Eskamani (District 42)
Hawaii State Senate
Stanley Chang (District 9)
Idaho State Senate
Geoff Schroeder (District 8)
Iowa State House
Elinor Levin (District 89)
Maine State Senate
Pinny Beebe-Center (District 12)
Maine State House
Lois Galgay Reckitt (District 122)
Lynne Williams (District 14)
Maryland State House
Brook Grossman (District 2B)
David Moon (District 20)
Julie Palakovich Carr (District 17)
Massachusetts State Senate
William Brownsberger (Second Suffolk and Middlesex)
Massachusetts State House
Jim Hawkins (Bristol District 2)
Tram Nguyen (Essex District 18)
Michigan State Senate
Jeff Irwin (District 15)
Michigan State House
Joey Andrews (District 38)
Minnesota State Senate
Jen McEwen (District 8)
Minnesota State House
Mike Freiberg (District 43B)
Montana State House
Bob Carter (District 98)
Nebraska State Senate
Megan Hunt (District 8)
Nevada State Assembly
Rochelle Nguyen (District 10)
Howard Watts (District 15)
New Hampshire State House
Amanda Bouldin (Hillsborough District 25)
Jacqueline Chretien (Hillsborough District 41)
Sherry Dutzy (Hillsborough District 6)
Kat McGhee (Hillsborough District 35)
Ellen Read (Rockingham District 10)
Carry Spier (Hillsborough District 6)
New Jersey State Senate
Andrew Zwicker (District 16)
New Mexico State Senate
William Soules (District 37)
New York State Senate
Jabari Brisport (District 25)
New York State Assembly
Harvey Epstein (District 74)
North Carolina State Senate
Julie Mayfield (District 49)
Oregon State House
Julie Fahey (District 14)
Zach Hudson (District 49)
Pam March (District 5)
Courtney Neron (District 26)
Pennsylvania State House
Emily Kinkead (District 20)
Chris Rabb (District 200)
Mark Rozzi (District 126)
Texas State House
Jon Rosenthal (District 135)
Utah State Senate
Nate Blouin (District 13)
Utah State House
Ashlee Matthews (District 37)
Vermont State Senate
Dick McCormack (Windsor District)
Becca White (Windsor District)
Vermont State House
Kathleen James (Bennington-4 District)
Monique Priestley (Orange-2 District)
Barbara Rachelson (Chittenden-14 District)
Mike Rice (Bennington-Rutland District)
Larry Satcowitz (Orange-Washington-Addison District)
Robin Scheu (Addison-1 District)
Washington State House
Beth Doglio (District 22-1)
Strom Peterson (District 21-1)
Wisconsin State Senate
Melissa Agard (District 16)
Kelda Roys (District 26)
Wisconsin State Assembly
Francesca Hong (District 76)