If history is any guide, Republicans have a monumental task in front of them as they approach the 2026 midterms — always a tall task for the party in power.
As AFN previously reported, USA Facts says voter turnout is the highest for presidential elections, with 63.8% of voters turning out for these elections. Midterm elections, however, receive a turnout of 47.8%.
An iVoterGuide survey released this week finds that only 55% of likely voters who show up to the polls in November will vote “down ballot,” or for the local candidate on their ballot. These are races like city council, mayor or sheriff.
Jack Hibbs is the senior and founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Southern California. He told Jenna Ellis on American Family Radio (AFR) the key to a successful November will be starting at the bottom of the ballot.
“We've got to get pulpits and pastors to educate their people to vote for the most biblically grounded worldview candidate in their local politics and then vote upward,” Hibbs says.
The first challenge, he noted, is to get pastors to put any politics in their sermons. They should because the Bible does.
“I don't want to hear it again from another pastor, ‘Well brother, I just preached the gospel.’ Well, you need to repent because you need to preach the gospel and teach the full counsel of God,” Hibbs acknowledges.
According to him, he's been beating this drum for years now, and it’s starting to find some success.
“I'm very thrilled to see the magnitude of pastors now involved in educating their congregation,” Hibbs states.
Voter guides, he said, like the ones at ivoterguide.com, come in handy, especially because the church is getting competition from an immigrant community.
“You know who's doing this perfectly well? Muslims. Muslims are taking over America because they vote locally, they understand it, and then they take over from the bottom up,” Hibbs says.
