Texas Rep. Lizzie Fletcher has joined the Congressional Freethought Caucus
The group, which champions reason-based policies and opposes discrimination against atheists, now stands at 23 members
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The Congressional Freethought Caucus has just added another member: Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX).
Fletcher was first elected in 2018 from Texas’ 7th District, which includes a part of Houston, after beating a nine-term Republican congressman. She now sits in a reliably blue seat (after a GOP-led redistricting). She’s the second CFC member from Texas, joining progressive Rep. Greg Casar.
The caucus now includes 23 members, all of whom are Democrats.
Like most of her colleagues in the CFC, Fletcher is religious. The Pew Research Center, in their 2023 roundup, listed her as Methodist. That doesn’t prevent her, of course, from supporting church/state separation and protecting freedom of religion for everyone (including the non-religious).
As of this writing, Fletcher hasn’t made any public announcement about her affiliation just yet and she didn’t respond to my request for comment. Still, the CFC’s website now lists her as a member.
In case you need a refresher, the CFC was first announced in 2018 by Rep. Jared Huffman, a Humanist (and fellow Californian) and currently the only openly non-religious member of Congress.
The 23 members now include:
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) (Co-chair)
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) (Co-chair)
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI)
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA)
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL)
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA)
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA)
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA)
Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-CA)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX)
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA)
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL)
Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT)
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX)
(Jerry McNerney, a former co-chair of the group, chose not to run for re-election in 2022. Another former member, Carolyn Maloney, lost her primary to another Democrat after their congressional districts in New York were redrawn last cycle.)
To be clear, this isn't an “atheist club” for Congress, as some critics have suggested. This is just a group of lawmakers dedicated to promoting reason-based public policy, keeping church and state separate, opposing discrimination against non-religious people, and championing freedom of thought around the world. There’s really no reason anyone should be against this. That’s why there’s nothing hypocritical about the fact that nearly every member of the Caucus is religious.
The hope is that the membership continues growing—making the Caucus more influential—while the stigma of being an atheist (or even being associated with non-religiosity) decreases across the country. Those two things are more closely linked than we might imagine. Keep in mind that the Congressional Prayer Caucus, which typically promotes a version of conservative Christianity, is much larger and has members from both major parties. By that metric, the Freethought Caucus has a long way to go.
As I’ve said before, perhaps the most shocking thing about the Caucus is that, based on the relative lack of media interest, people don’t seem to care who the members are… which is to say, no one—not even in right-wing media—thinks it’s a big deal for sitting House members to align with a group defending atheists.
That also means none of these lawmakers believes joining the Caucus will be a concern for them heading into the 2024 elections, which may come as a shock to anyone who remembers a time when aligning with atheism was considered one of the biggest taboos in politics.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
And still Republican-free.
REPUBLICANS: "Public policies based on reason and not negative emotion and intolerance? Keeping church and state separate? Fighting against discrimination and not for discrimination? Championing free thought? We'll have none of THAT!"
No doubt there exists atheist, agnostic or non-religious Republicans. I will applaud the first one to have the guts to join this group, but won't hold my breath.