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How did religion figure in the midterm Democratic tsunami that just swept over the Republican Party?

By the numbers, religious communities changed their voting behavior in distinctly different ways. From the 2024 and 2026 exit polls, here are the most salient changes:

Catholics went from backing the GOP 59%-39% in 2024 to voting Democratic 50%-49% in 2026, a 21-point shift that was doubtless led by Latino Catholics, given that Latinos of all religious persuasions voted 51%-46% in favor of Democrats in 2024 and 64%-34% in 2026. (A Pew survey released in October showed Hispanic Catholics favoring Democrats 59%-19%.) Democrats owe a good deal of their success nationwide to this shift.

While 82% of white evangelicals voted Republican in both elections, their percentage of the national vote declined by more than a quarter, from 23% to 17%.…