The Congressional Freethought Caucus has added two more members

The group, which champions reason-based policies and opposes discrimination against atheists, now stands at 28 members

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The Congressional Freethought Caucus has just added another two members: Reps. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Delia Ramirez (D-IL).

Reps. Judy Chu (left) and Delia Ramirez

In addition to being the first Chinese American woman in Congress, Chu has served in the House since 2009. Before that, she served on a school board, city council (including multiple terms as mayor), and the California State Assembly. She is currently a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the former chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

Ramirez is a former state legislator who was elected to Congress in 2022. The daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and the “wife of a DACA recipient,” she’s also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as the Hispanic and Equality caucuses.

Like most of their colleagues in the CFC, both Chu and Ramirez are religious. The Pew Research Center, in their 2025 roundup, listed Chu as a Unitarian Universalist and Ramirez as a Methodist. That doesn’t prevent them, of course, from supporting church/state separation and protecting freedom of religion for everyone (including the non-religious).

The caucus now includes 28 members, all of whom are Democrats. As of this writing, neither congresswoman has made any public announcements about their CFC affiliation, but the CFC’s website lists Chu as a member. Ramirez isn’t on there yet, but her inclusion was announced today by the American Humanist Association.

In case you need a refresher, the CFC was first announced in 2018 by Rep. Jared Huffman, currently the only openly Humanist member of Congress.

The 28 members now include:

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) (Co-chair)
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) (Co-chair)
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. 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)
Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA)
Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-OR)
Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA)
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ)
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA)
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL)

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 the Caucus will be a concern for them during the second Trump administration. That may come as a shock to anyone who remembers a time when aligning (even remotely) with atheism was considered one of the biggest taboos in politics.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)

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