Two more Democrats have joined the Congressional Freethought Caucus

The group, which champions reason-based policies and opposes discrimination against atheists, now stands at 24 members

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The Congressional Freethought Caucus has just added two more members: Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-OR) and Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA).

Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-OR) and Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA)

Salinas is currently in her second term in Congress. When she was first elected in 2022, it was only after beating a Democrat who was bankrolled by fraudster billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried then narrowly beating a Republican in a tight race in a newly created district. In 2024, she beat a different Republican by a slightly wider margin.

Salinas began her political career in the office of the late Sen. Harry Reid. She later worked for the late Rep. Pete Stark, Congress’ first openly Humanist member. She eventually landed in the Oregon House of Representatives before running for Congress herself. In her first term, she was the freshman representative to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and sponsored bills to increase mental health care in public schools and expand telehealth services in rural communities.

Like most of her colleagues in the CFC, Salinas is religious. The Pew Research Center, in their 2025 roundup, listed her as Catholic. That doesn’t prevent her, of course, from supporting church/state separation and protecting freedom of religion for everyone (including the non-religious).

Randall is a newly elected lawmaker whose religion is officially listed as “none.” She is also the first openly queer Latina in Congress. Before entering Congress, she served in the Washington State Senate, winning her two races by extremely narrow margins. She jumped onto the national stage after her predecessor chose to retire after 12 years.

The caucus now includes 24 members, all of whom are Democrats.

As of this writing, neither Salinas nor Randall have made any public announcements about their affiliation, but the CFC’s new website lists them as members. The Center for Freethought Equality, affiliated with the American Humanist Association, also confirmed their memberships with me, as did Huffman’s office.

Fish Stark, the Executive Director of the American Humanist Association and Pete Stark’s son, has known Salinas since he was a child. He shared his thoughts with me:

Those who know her can tell you there are few Members of Congress with her combination of heart, courage, and smarts. We're incredibly lucky to have her in the Congressional Freethought Caucus as a champion for church-state separation—and grateful to all the grassroots activists at the AHA and beyond who let her know how important it was that she join!

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

The 24 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)

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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