Republican Report Card: Oklahoma Edition

 Oklahoma Has Had Unified Republican Government Since 2011. Here is their Report Card.

Oklahoma voters are being told that changing political direction would put the state at risk.

Before accepting or rejecting that argument, it is worth looking at the measurable results of the direction Oklahoma has followed.

Republicans have controlled the governor’s office and both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature continuously since 2011.

That period gives Oklahoma a long record to examine.

THE OKLAHOMA POCKETBOOK

• Oklahoma median household income is $65,039, compared with $80,734 nationally—a gap of nearly $15,700 a year.

• Colorado, a neighboring state that competes with Oklahoma for businesses and workers, has median household income of $95,470—more than $30,000 above Oklahoma using the same Census measure.

• 14.9% of Oklahomans live below the poverty line, compared with 10.6% nationally.

These numbers tell us that the typical Oklahoma household has substantially less income than the typical American household.

HOW MANY OKLAHOMA FAMILIES ARE STRUGGLING?

• In 2024, 23,694 Oklahoma births—49.7% of all births—were paid by Medicaid through SoonerCare.Nationally, Medicaid finances roughly four in ten births. In plain English, approximately one out of every two babies born in Oklahoma was born with Medicaid paying for the delivery.

• 13.7% of Oklahomans under age 65 lack health insurance, compared with 9.6% nationally. Oklahoma's uninsured rate is about 43% higher than the national rate.

• USDA found that 16.9% of Oklahoma households experienced food insecurity during 2022–2024, compared with 13.3% nationally over the same three-year period.

The number of Oklahomans who need this assistance tells us something important about the economic circumstances of Oklahoma households compared with the rest of the country.

HEALTH, HOSPITALS AND HOW LONG OKLAHOMANS LIVE

• Oklahoma life expectancy was 73.8 years in 2022. U.S. life expectancy was 77.5 years—a difference of 3.7 years.

• Oklahoma's 2024 infant mortality rate was 7.42 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 5.52 nationally—about 34% higher. Only five states had higher infant mortality rates, giving Oklahoma the sixth-highest rate among the 50 states.

• Oklahoma has 73 open rural inpatient hospitals. The Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform identifies 45—62%—as at risk of closing, including 18 at immediate risk. Seven rural hospitals have closed since 2015, while six additional facilities have ended inpatient services or converted.

The consequences do not stop at the county line. When rural services disappear, patients have to travel farther for care and other hospitals must absorb those patients.

Federal law requires hospital emergency departments covered by EMTALA to screen and stabilize patients with emergency medical conditions regardless of whether they have insurance or can pay.

That makes access to primary care, health insurance and financially stable local hospitals more than rural health issues. They are part of the economics of Oklahoma's entire health-care system.

EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE PIPELINE

• On the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Oklahoma fourth graders averaged 233 in mathematics versus 237 nationally and 207 in reading versus 214 nationally.

• Oklahoma eighth graders averaged 264 in mathematics versus 272 nationally and 249 in reading versus 257 nationally.

• Only 28.3% of Oklahomans age 25 and older have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 35.7% nationally.

These are not simply school statistics. They are economic-development statistics.

Major employers such as Boeing have emphasized the importance of Oklahoma producing more career-ready workers with strong technical skills. Todd Pauley, who handles government and community relations for Boeing in Oklahoma, put the issue plainly:

“Businesses will look elsewhere for the talent they need.”

That raises a basic economic-development question:

Is Oklahoma putting enough of its economic-development resources into producing the skilled workers employers say they need—or relying too heavily on tax incentives to attract and retain businesses?

Oklahoma's education funding history makes that question more important.

By 2018, inflation-adjusted state aid per student had fallen 28.2% from its 2008 level—the largest reduction in the country on that measure.

At the same time, Oklahoma's reliance on emergency-certified teachers exploded.

The State Department of Education reported just 32 emergency teacher certificates in 2011–12. That number had reached 2,153 by 2017–18 and 2,852 by December of the following school year. OSDE counted 3,721 emergency-certified teachers in 2023–24 and 3,329 in 2024–25.

Student results weakened over much of the same period. Oklahoma's fourth-grade reading score is now below the national average, as are its fourth-grade mathematics and eighth-grade reading scores.

Those trends do not require us to claim that one budget cut caused one test score. They do show what was happening to Oklahoma's education system while employers were telling the state they needed more highly trained workers.

SAFETY AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING

• Oklahoma's suicide rate was 21.79 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with about 14.1 nationally—roughly 55% higher.

• At the end of 2023, Oklahoma had 545 sentenced state prisoners per 100,000 residents, compared with 318 per 100,000 across state prison systems nationally. Oklahoma's rate was about 71% higher, and only Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas had higher state imprisonment rates.

• The CDC's latest National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that 41.6% of Oklahoma womenreported lifetime contact sexual violence, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner, compared with 34.0% nationally. Among Oklahoma men, the figure was 25.5%, compared with 17.0% nationally.

Again, these are different measures of well-being, with different causes. But taken together, they are part of Oklahoma's report card.

STATE FISCAL AND ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT CHOICES

Oklahoma did not refuse to use government to shape the economy.

It made choices about where government would intervene and where public resources would go.

The Parental Choice Tax Credit

The Parental Choice Tax Credit was promoted as a way to expand educational choice. The state's own September 2026 report gives us a way to measure how much new choice it is actually producing.

• Oklahoma had approved 41,466 students for $264.8 million in private-school tax credits for the 2026–27 school year as of September 3.

• Only 3,515 of those students—8.5%—had attended a public school the previous semester. More than 91% were not coming directly from public schools.

• About 73% of approved students were in households reporting adjusted gross income above $75,000.

• Those households received about $183 million—69% of the approved dollars.

• Households reporting income above $250,000 alone were approved for more than $54 million.

• Geographic concentration is also significant. In the previous school year, Tulsa and its surrounding suburbs alone accounted for nearly $96 million in private-school tax credits.

If the purpose is to expand educational choice, the relevant question is straightforward:

How much of this spending is creating a choice families did not previously have—and how much is subsidizing choices that had already been made?

The Shadow Budget

There is a larger issue.

Our reconstruction of Oklahoma's major economic-development tax expenditures and incentive commitments puts the comparable Shadow Budget at roughly $200 million around the beginning of unified Republican government in 2011.

Today, recurring commitments approach approximately $1.3 billion a year. When the state's $200 million taxpayer-endowment commitment is included, the broader Shadow Budget approaches $1.5 billion—roughly 12 cents for every dollar in Oklahoma's appropriated budget.

Those commitments include tax credits, rebates, reduced tax rates, exemptions and economic-development incentives.

During much of the same period, Oklahoma was also reducing income-tax rates. The top individual rate was 5.5% in 2011, fell to 5.25% in 2012, later to 5%, then 4.75%, and is 4.5% for tax year 2026.

Oklahoma's Constitution also makes raising revenue unusually difficult. A revenue bill generally requires either voter approval or a three-fourths vote in both houses of the Legislature.

That matters because Oklahoma has to make choices with the revenue it has.

Oklahoma cannot spend the same dollar twice.

A dollar committed through a tax preference or tax reduction is a dollar that is not available for another purpose unless additional revenue replaces it.

That means decisions about tax incentives are also decisions about the resources available for education, health care, rural hospitals, workforce development, infrastructure and the other measures of well-being discussed above.

And that brings us back to what employers themselves are saying.

If employers say their constraint is skilled labor, workforce development is economic development.

If rural hospitals are financially vulnerable, health-care infrastructure is economic development.

If household incomes substantially trail the country, raising the earning power of Oklahoma workers is economic development.

And if businesses cannot find enough trained workers, education is economic development.

The question is not whether every tax incentive is bad.

The question is whether Oklahoma has been putting its economic-development dollars where they produce the greatest return for the people who live here.

THE RECORD

When one party has controlled the governor's office and both chambers of the Legislature since 2011, voters have a record they can examine.

Household income matters.

Nearly half of births being financed by Medicaid matters.

A 43% higher uninsured rate matters.

Food insecurity matters.

Rural hospitals matter.

A life expectancy 3.7 years below the nation matters.

An infant mortality rate 34% above the nation matters.

Reading and mathematics matter.

The workforce employers say they need matters.

How Oklahoma chooses to spend $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in tax preferences and economic-development commitments matters.

Those are not partisan statistics.

They describe the Oklahoma in which people actually live.

Wanting Oklahoma to do better is not the same as disliking Oklahoma.

I criticize its leaders because I care about the people who live here—and because “love it or leave it” has never fixed a single problem.

Follow the money at wlangdon.substack.com

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Oklahoma, United States and Colorado—median household income, poverty, educational attainment and uninsured population. Oklahoma's uninsured rate is 13.7% versus 9.6% nationally. (Census.gov)

CDC/National Center for Health Statistics, Oklahoma—Stats of the States—life expectancy and state health statistics. (CDC)

CDC/National Center for Health Statistics, Infant Mortality in the United States, 2024. The final data report a U.S. rate of 5.52 and Oklahoma rate of 7.42; the state table shows only five states with higher rates. (CDC)

National Center for Health Statistics/March of Dimes PeriStats—Medicaid/SoonerCare coverage of Oklahoma births.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Household Food Security in the United States in 2024. Oklahoma: 16.9%; U.S.: 13.3% for the 2022–2024 state-comparison period. (Economic Research Service)

Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, Rural Hospitals at Risk of Closing, May 2026. (Rural Hospitals)

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act guidance.

National Center for Education Statistics, The Nation's Report Card: Oklahoma, 2024. (Nation's Report Card)

Oklahoma State Department of Education, Teacher Shortage Legislative Brief—32 emergency certificates in 2011–12 and rapid subsequent growth. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)

Oklahoma State Department of Education, OSDE Fast Facts—3,721 emergency-certified teachers in 2023–24 and 3,329 in 2024–25. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)

Oklahoma education-funding data summarized by the Oklahoma Policy Institute from the national state-aid comparison—28.2% inflation-adjusted reduction in per-pupil state aid from 2008, the largest decline nationally at the time. (OK Policy Institute)

Oklahoma Business Voice, interview with Todd Pauley, Boeing government and community relations, January 2026.

CDC, National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 2023/2024 Intimate Partner Violence Data Brief. U.S. women: 34.0%; Oklahoma women: 41.6%. U.S. men: 17.0%; Oklahoma men: 25.5%. (CDC)

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2023—Statistical Tables. (Bureau of Justice Statistics)

CDC, Suicide Rates by State. Oklahoma: 21.79 deaths per 100,000. (CDC)

Oklahoma Tax Commission, Parental Choice Tax Credit Report for School Year 2026–2027, September 3, 2026. The report shows 41,466 approved students, 3,515 who previously attended public school and $264,788,333 approved. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)

Oklahoma Tax Commission, Parental Choice Tax Credit program and HB 3705—statutory program cap increased to $275 million for 2026–27. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)

Tulsa Flyer, Thousands of Tulsa families received $70M in private school tax credits last year, August 3, 2026—Tulsa plus surrounding suburbs accounted for nearly $96 million. (Tulsa Flyer)

Oklahoma Tax Commission, Tax Expenditure Reports, including 2011–12 and 2023–24, and Oklahoma economic-development program reports used in the Shadow Budget reconstruction. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)

Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services—historical individual income-tax rates. (Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site)

Oklahoma Statutes—4.5% top individual income-tax rate for tax year 2026. (Westlaw Government)

Oklahoma Constitution, Article V, Section 33—three-fourths legislative requirement for revenue bills not submitted to voters.

Malicious Compliance Options for Opt-out Lessons

 Politico reported on June 27th that the Supreme Court had ruled "that Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools violated parents' First Amendment rights to religious exercise by not giving them advanced notice or an opportunity to opt their children out of certain lessons."

Over at tumblr, nodynastyforus responded with a rather snarky post suggesting what malicious compliance might look like: Notify the parents of everything conceivable, and be as petty as possible.

• A lesson on a particular country will mention what the majority religion there is -> Notify parents that their children will hear that not everyone has the same religion as their family.
• Women are equal citizens to men -> Notify parents, because some of them cite Bible verses against equality.
• People of all skin colors are equal citizens -> Notify parents, because some are against this, in every part of the country.
• Meat will be discussed as a food -> Notify parents, because some are vegan for religious reasons.
• Languages other than English are taught or even just explained -> Notify parents, because some of them genuinely believe that God dictated the Bible to King James in English.
• A social studies lesson about the industries of California says that wine is one of them -> Notify parents, because some of them have religious beliefs against alcohol.
• Tobacco in North Carolina -> Notify parents, because some object to smoking for religious reasons.
• A music class is illustrated with a picture of an organ in a church -> Notify parents, because some don't believe in instrumental music in church.
• Teaching evolution, because some fundamentalists believe that all dinosaurs drowned in the Flood after trying to sink Noah's Ark.
• Blood transfusions, because one sect thinks they are immoral.
• Medical care in general, because some parents believe diseases can be cured by prayer alone.
• Holidays observed by various religions and cultures--someone is going to claim those observations are demonic.
• Interfaith marriage, because you can find Bible verses against this.
• Interracial marriage, because of the curse of Ham or some such vile nonsense.
• In fact, you better not mention any religion, because an atheist parent could conceivably object.
• Weapons, because some sects are strict pacifists.
• People dressing in conventional everyday clothing, because some religions have rules about modest dress. (Of course this is mostly but not entirely used against women.)
• Gambling, which some people oppose for religious reasons.
• Geometry and trigonometry, because some say π = 3.

 

America: You Fucked Up

You could have chosen Hope. You chose Hate.

You could have chosen Empathy. You chose Enmity.

You could have chosen a New Beginning. You chose the Nazi.

We could have finally been rid of this cancer on American democracy. He could have been banished to obscurity, remembered only as the worst president in American history, and finally held responsible for his numerous crimes.

The ignorant, racist, misogynistic, white supremacist, pathologicial liar is now going back to the White House. He is a convicted felon, an admitted sexual predator, a total fraud, and a demented old man. He belongs in prison.

What did you do?

You ignored that the U.S. economy is the strongest in the world, that inflation is at its lowest level in four years, that unemployment is at its lowest level in three years. You believed the lies about how terrible the economy is. I knew better.

You forgot about his 30,000+ lies while he was in office. I remember.

You forgot about his complete mismanagement and ignorance over COVID, resulting in the deaths of over one million Americans. I remember.

You forgot about the saber rattling over military exercises in the pacific, when Kim Jong Un threatened us with nuclear missiles, causing us to fear whether we'd see another day. I remember.

You forgot about waking up every morning dreading to hear the latest abomination he tweeted. I remember.

You forgot about "very fine people on both sides." I remember.

You forgot about "only the best people" like Betsy DeVos, Rick Perry, Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, Steve Mnuchin, and many others who were given cabinet positions despite having zero qualifications for the job. I remember.

You forgot that 40 of his former cabinet members and dozens of former generals and officials refused to support him, saying he was "unfit to serve." I remember.

You forgot about January 6, "fight like hell". I remember.

You forgot that when he was told that his vice president was secured because the rioters wanted to kill him, he said, "So what?" I remember

You forgot about The Big Lie, "Release the Kraken" and 60+ failed attempts to overturn the election in the courts. I remember.

You forgot about "I just need you to find 11,780 votes." I remember.

You forgot about "They're eating the cats! They're eating the dogs!" I remember.

What now?

When a woman suffering an ectopic pregnancy dies because she doesn't have access to medical care, that's on you.

When they take away your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend, and deport them, that's on you.

When a woman is forced to suffer the agony of carrying her rapist's baby to term, that's on you.

When a transgender kid harms themselves because they can't get the medical care they need, that's on you.

When your middle-class taxes GO UP, while billionaires get even more tax breaks, that's on you.

When schoolchildren are killed by an assault rifle in a mass shooting, that's on you.

When children grow up ignorant because you banned books and dictated how history is taught, that's on you.

When Grandma can no longer afford a comfortable life because the Social Security she paid into all her working life, and provided income on which she now depends, has been cut, that's on you.

When violence against Jews, Asians, Hispanics rises again, that's on you.

When prices on the goods you buy skyrocket due to tariffs, that's on you.

When Ukraine, deprived of our support, is overrun by Russia, that's on you.

When the U.S. is the laughing stock of the world (as we were 2016-2020), that's on you.

What should you have done?

You should have exercised critical thinking skills, recognized the thousands of lies you were being told, recalled that his administration had four years to live up to his promises and failed at all of them. You should have realized that he is a profoundly stupid individual who doesn't give a shit about you or your family or anything except himself.

You had the last nine years to see that, and you still fell for his bullshit.

gas and groceries (tumblr grab)

 Why do conservatives complain about the price of gas and groceries?

If you don't like the price of gas and groceries, just stop buying gas and groceries.

What's that? That's horrible advice?

Well, that's the exact advice you've been giving to other struggling people since the beginning of time. You've been nonchalantly defending the free market whenever it was harmful to others. You convinced yourself that those who are struggling deserve it until you became one. Then, you suddenly decided that it must be some deep state conspiracy instead of accepting that what's happening to you is exactly what you dismissed when it was happening to others.

The Christian Nationalist Hydra (TPM)

The Christian Nationalist Hydra: In Era of Trump, Christian Nationalism Has Many Faces

 From traditional Christian-right figures to secret societies envisioning a ‘national divorce,’ a growing contingent of radical activists is planning for Christian supremacy.

By Sarah Posner     April 12, 2024 9:54 a.m.

I am a journalist who has covered the Christian right for two decades. Over the past three years, I began to more frequently use the term “Christian nationalism” to describe the movement I cover. But I did not start using a new term to suggest its proponents’ ideology had changed. Instead, the term had come into more common usage in the Trump era, now regularly used by academics, journalists, and pro-democracy activists to describe a movement that insists America is a “Christian nation” — that is, an illiberal, nominally democratic theocracy, rather than a pluralistic secular democracy.

To me, the phrase was highly descriptive of the movement I’ve dedicated my career to covering, and neatly encapsulates the core threat the Christian right poses to freedom and equality. From its top leaders and influencers down to the grassroots — politically mobilized white evangelicals, the foot soldiers of the Christian right — its proponents believe that God divinely ordained America to be a Christian nation; that this Christian nation has come under attack by liberals and secularists; and that patriotic Christians must engage in spiritual warfare to rid America of demonic forces, and in political action to restore its Christian heritage. That includes taking political steps — as a voter, as an elected official, as a lawyer, as a judge — to ensure that America is governed according to a “biblical worldview.”

If you want to see that definition in action, look no further than the career of House Speaker Mike Johnson. Seventeen years ago, when I interviewed Johnson, then a lawyer with the Christian right legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom, I would have labeled him a loyal soldier in the Christian right’s legal army trying to bring down the separation of church and state. He is a product of and a participant in a sprawling religious and political infrastructure that has made the movement’s successes possible, from politically active megachurches, to culture-shaping organizations like Focus on the Family, to political players like the Family Research Council, to the legal force in his former employer ADF. 

In today’s parlance, Johnson is a Christian nationalist — although he, like most of his compatriots, has certainly not embraced the label. But Mike Johnson the House Speaker is still Mike Johnson the lawyer I interviewed all those years ago: an evangelical called to politics to be a “servant leader” to a Christian nation, dedicated to its governance according to a biblical worldview: against church-state separation, for expanded rights for conservative Christians, adamantly against abortion and LGBTQ rights, and especially, currently, trans rights.

That mindset is still the beating heart of the Christian right, even as the movement, and other movements in the far-right space, have radicalized in the Trump era, taking on new forms and embracing a range of solutions to the apocalyptic trajectory they see America to be on. Different movements imagining a version of Christian supremacy exist side by side — different strains that often borrow ideas from one another, and that fit comfortably under the banner of Christian nationalism.  

The term “Christian nationalism” became popularized during Trump’s presidency for a few reasons. First, Trump, who first ran in 2016 on a nativist platform with the nationalist slogan “Make America Great Again,” was and still is dependent on white evangelicals to win elections and maintain a hold on power. He is consequently willing to carry out their goals, bringing their ambitions closer to fruition than they’ve ever been in their 45-year marriage to the Republican Party. They have been clear, for example, in crediting him for the downfall of Roe v. Wade, among other assaults on other peoples’ rights.

Second, the prominence of Christian iconography at the January 6 insurrection, and the support for Trump’s stolen election lie before, during, and after January 6 by both Christian right influencers and the grassroots, brought into stark relief that Christian nationalist motivations helped fuel his attempted coup.  

Finally, sociologists studying the belief systems of Christian nationalists pushed the term into public usage, as did anti-nationalist Christians, especially after January 6, in order to elevate awareness of the threats Christian nationalism poses to democracy. (The paperback edition of my book, Unholy, which was published in mid-2021 and included a post-January 6 afterword, reflected the increasing usage of the term Christian nationalists by including the term in a fresh subtitle.)

The Trump era, along with the rise of openly Christian nationalist social media sites like Gab, and Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, have given space for otherwise unknown figures, like the rabidly antisemitic Gab founder Andrew Torba, co-author of the book Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide For Taking Dominion And Discipling Nations, and Stephen Wolfe, author of the racist book The Case for Christian Nationalism, to enter the Christian nationalism discourse. Although Torba and Wolfe have made waves online, and extremism watchers are rightly alarmed that their tracts could prove influential and radicalizing, they remain distinct from the Christian right. Torba’s antisemitism is so extreme, for example, that Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano — himself extreme — was forced to create some daylight between himself and his supporter Torba in his 2022 run. Torba’s site platformed the antisemitic rantings of the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, and Torba himself has said Jews aren’t welcome in his envisioned Christian nation. The Republican Jewish Coalition called Gab “a cesspool of bigotry and antisemitism.” Mastriano’s move seemed motivated more by self-preservation than contrition (and he lost the race anyway). 

That’s not to say, of course, that the Christian right and the conservative movement more broadly haven’t tolerated racists and other extremists in their midst — Trump’s endurance as their savior itself proves just how much that tolerance persists. Their entire alliance with Trump is one of sharing political and ideological space with the overtly antisemitic, racist, Islamophobic, nativist extremists he elevated to mainstream status in the GOP. But the Christian right is also committed to Christian Zionism, an ideology that claims to love the state of Israel while imagining it as the locus of Jesus’s violent return, and which is, in its philosemitism and bloody apocalyptic fantasies, antisemitic. Still, it would make it difficult for them to form explicit alliances with someone like Torba, a self-described Christian nationalist who repeatedly and unabashedly promotes some of the world’s oldest and ugliest antisemitic tropes like the Jews killed Jesus and secretly control the world. 

What’s more, Torba advocates for a “parallel society” for Christians to escape the supposedly debauched America he deplores. This is not unlike the Benedict Option advocated by conservative Christian (and Viktor Orbán admirer) Rod Dreher, or the secret, hyper-patriarchal Society for Civic American Renewal exposed by TPM’s Josh Kovensky, which is recruiting “unhyphenated” men of only certain denominations to run a Christian government after an anticipated “national divorce.” The language of SACR’s internal documents, to me, as a student of evangelicalism, is quite distinct from the sort of statement of faith you’d see from a church or evangelical organization, which would emphasize one’s salvation in Jesus Christ, commitment to the Bible as the literal, inerrant word of God, and the imperative for Christians to preach the gospel around the world.

The conventional Christian right does not want a parallel society or a divorce. They believe they are restoring, and will run, the Christian nation God intended America to be — from the inside. They will do that, in their view, through faith (evangelizing others and bringing them to salvation through Jesus Christ); through spiritual warfare (using prayer to battle satanic enemies of Christian America); and through politics and the law (governing and lawmaking from a “biblical worldview” after eviscerating church-state separation). Changes in the evangelical world, particularly the emphasis in the growing charismatic movement on prophecy, signs and wonders, spiritual warfare, the prosperity gospel, and Trumpism, has intensified the prominence of the supernatural in their politics, giving their Christian nationalism its own unmistakable brand.

For decades, Christian right has been completely open about their beliefs and goals. Their quest to take dominion over American institutions by openly evangelizing and instituting Christian supremacist policies sets the Christian right apart from other types of Christian nationalists who might operate in secret, or imagine utopian communities as the ideal way to save themselves from a secular, debauched nation. 

The fact that far-right extremists like Torba or Wolfe embrace the Christian nationalist label gives the more conventional Christian right leaders and organizations space to disassociate themselves from it. Some also berate journalists who use it to describe them, accusing them of hurling a left-wing slur at Christians. 

The bottom line is that Christian nationalism takes on different forms, and despite organizational or even ideological differences, ideas can penetrate the often porous borders between different camps. Someone who receives the daily email blast from the Family Research Council might also be drawn to Wolfe’s book, for example. On a more unnerving, macro level, major right-wing and GOP figures, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and the CEO of the Daily Wire, the podcast consortium run by conservative influencer Ben Shapiro, have embraced the rabidly antisemitic, Hitler-admiring antagonist Nick Fuentes, who is Catholic but also is accurately described as a Christian nationalist. The increasingly influential Catholic integralist movement, which seeks a Catholic-inflected replacement for the “liberal order,” is yet another unique form of Christian nationalism.

Christian nationalism is a serious threat to democracy, because it is premised on the supremacy of Christianity and rejects the democratic values of freedom and equality for all. It is crucial to understand that it takes various forms, how its numerous proponents differ, and how they intersect. Some pose a threat because of their proximity to political and legal power; others because they accelerate racist and antisemitic rhetoric; and still others because they might incite violence. These distinctions show how Christian nationalism is varied, very combustible, and critical to combat.