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(RNS) — Many have puzzled over the unusual number of pastors, former pastors and seminarians running for Congress as Democrats this year, but not the Rev. Adam Hamilton. Asked in August about the trend, Hamilton, a United Methodist megachurch pastor running an unexpectedly competitive race for U.S. Senate in Kansas as a Democrat, answered immediately.

“Since the beginning of 2025, things are so abnormal in Washington, D.C.,” he told Religion News Service, explaining he believes actions by the Trump administration have spurred people to wrestle with what, exactly, constitutes American values.

“I think there’s a lot of religious people — especially, I think, mainline Protestant pastors — who are saying: Somebody’s got to do something,” he said, adding that pastors-turned-candidates like himself are “feeling the sense of call, and I’m going to attribute it to the Holy Spirit.”

It’s a sentiment shared by a surprising number of…