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(RNS) — When Kansas megachurch pastor the Rev. Adam Hamilton made history Tuesday night (Nov. 3) by becoming the state’s first Democratic senator in nearly a century, it wasn’t Protestants or Catholics who clinched him the victory — it was religious nones.

Though the Methodist pastor’s Christian principles were front and center during his campaign, he lost both Protestants (37%) and Catholics (48%) in the Kansas Senate race, according to exit polls from CNN . But he but earned support from 81% of the state’s nonreligious voters.

A similar pattern emerged in Texas. James Talarico lost Protestants (40%) and won Catholics (60%), but it was religious nones (78%) who showed up en masse for the Presbyterian seminarian.…