In this guide, we break down five storylines to explore how religion shapes—and is shaped by—the political landscape in the months ahead.

Jack Jenkins is a national reporter for Religion News Service based in Washington, covering the intersection of religion and politics as well as U.S. Catholics. He is the author of American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country.American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics […]

Michael Sean Winters is a prominent American journalist, columnist, and author who primarily writes about the intersection of politics and the Roman Catholic Church. He is best known for his long-running column and blog, “Distinctly Catholic,” published by the National Catholic Reporter. He is a Senior Fellow at the Greenberg Center for the Study of […]

Maggie Siddiqi is Senior Advisor at Interfaith Alliance. She is an expert in faith-based advocacy for social change, coalition-building across lines of difference, and public policy on religious freedom and standing up against hate. Siddiqi recently concluded her appointment to the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Education, where she served as Director of the […]

Gabriel Salguero is pastor at The Gathering Place, a Latino-led multi-ethnic Assemblies of God congregation in Orlando, Florida. Salguero is also the president and founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition (NALEC), a coalition of several thousand evangelical congregations in the United States. He was the former Director of the Hispanic Leadership Program (HLP), and […]

This guide, part of a new series from ReligionLink focusing on different regions in global religion reporting, provides background, resources, relevant stories and sources to help journalists understand East Asia’s religious institutions, communities, histories and political contexts.

Richard Madsen is a distinguished professor emeritus of sociology at UC San Diego and director of the Fudan-UC Center on Contemporary China, Madsen is a foundational scholar of Chinese religion and society, with a particular focus on Chinese Catholics and Taiwanese religion.

Nanlai Cao is a sociocultural anthropologist at City University of Hong Kong who has conducted extensive ethnographic research on contemporary Chinese Christianity, particularly in Wenzhou. His work is especially useful for reporters interested in how religion operates at the level of neighborhoods, businesses, families and everyday life rather than simply through national policy. He also […]

In this guide, we provide background, tips and suggestions, newswriting for context and experts and sources for you to turn to as you ramp up your coverage of religion and the 2026 midterms.