Two more Democrats have joined the Congressional Freethought Caucus
The group, which champions reason-based policies and opposes discrimination against atheists, now stands at 26 members
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The Congressional Freethought Caucus has just added another two members: Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ).
Nadler has been in the House since 1993, representing a part of New York that includes central Manhattan, and is currently the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee (the most powerful Democrat in that group).
Ironically, after the 2020 Census and subsequent redistricting, Nadler was forced to run against a fellow incumbent House member to retain his seat and he ended up the winner. The person he defeated in the 2022 Democratic primary? Carolyn Maloney… who happened to be a member of the Congressional Freethought Caucus. (So I guess his CFC membership brings that story full circle.)
Like most of his colleagues in the CFC, Nadler is religious. The Pew Research Center, in their 2025 roundup, listed him as Jewish. That doesn’t prevent him, of course, from supporting church/state separation and protecting freedom of religion for everyone (including the non-religious).
Ansari is listed as “Unaffiliated” on that same survey, though she has said in interviews that she’s agnostic. When Phoenix Magazine’s Tom Zoellner profiled her just before the election, she discussed why she was no longer a member of any organized religion:
Despite a potential surface assumption, Arizona will not be electing its first two Muslim Congresspersons come November 7. Ansari’s grandparents fled Iran after the revolution of 1979, and she says her family generally left religious practice behind in the trauma. “I actually consider myself agnostic… I respect everyone’s faith, but I do not personally practice one.”
Previously, Ansari was sworn into office as a Phoenix city councilwoman with her hand not on a book of scripture but the Arizona Constitution. This is a not a common practice, but it mirrors the decision of Kyrsten Sinema – a self-described “Mormon apostate” – to be sworn into Congress with her hand on the U.S. Constitution in 2013.
The caucus now includes 26 members, all of whom are Democrats. As of this writing, neither Nadler nor Ansari have made any public announcements about their affiliation, but the CFC’s new website lists them as members.
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 26 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)
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)
It's sad that in a democracy based on separation of church and state
1) A Free Thought caucus is needed
2) There is only 26 members
Baby steps. Judging by how they respond, it's pretty clear the religious right is becoming increasingly desperate to get government to backstop their sense of Christian privilege. They know they're losing the long game. They do what they can to conflate the word atheist with evil, and use it as a pejorative. All the while ignoring the countless horrors perpetrated by religious people in the name of their religion.