Under God: How Christianity permeates Yakima city politics

When faith and politics mix

Once upon a time, serving on a city council or a school board was a nonpartisan position. No one expected a small-town mayor or city council member to weigh in on culture-war topics. But times have changed, and now, a mayor or city council member speaking out about these topics may help them appeal to conservative and evangelical voters.

That change was recognized by the Yakima Herald-Republic’s editorial board, which took note of Brown, as the leader of the county’s Republican party, endorsing candidates in nonpartisan races. 

Bruce Smith, owner of the Yakima Valley Business Times and longtime conservative activist in the Yakima Valley, said that not all Republicans subscribe to evangelical Christian beliefs or the concept of Christian nationalism. 

For example, Smith said if he’d been on the Council, he wouldn’t have rejected the Pride Month proclamation. He said if the city issues other proclamations for other groups and events, he doesn’t see how that should differ for Pride Month. “I just don’t have the opposition that other people have to a person being gay.”

Still, many see the opportunity to include these Christians in a broader coalition to advance conservative policies and win elections.

“Let’s find the 90% we agree on and work on that … and ignore the 10%,” Smith said, riffing on a quote by Ronald Reagan.

And in a place like Yakima, it’s still an asset for people to be public about their Christian beliefs. “When they run for office, they openly own it,” he said.

Brown agrees that his pastor role was a positive for voters. “I door-knocked on 8,000 doors when I was running in 2021,” he said. “When I talked to a lot of folks at the door, they told me, ‘We actually like that you are a pastor because we know where your morals are … We know you’re not going to remove our police. We know that because of your faith and who you are.’”

Brown, as chair of the Yakima County Republican Central Committee, has also been involved in efforts to mobilize evangelical Christian voters.

The Yakima County GOP set up “in-person voting centers” in five evangelical churches on two dates ahead of the 2023 general election, and on Election Day itself, Nov. 4, 2023. The centers were the local effort to support a national Republican priority to bring back “in-person voting.” However, as Washington allows mail-in voting, the centers were merely places for voters to fill out their ballots, which were collected from these centers and delivered to county drop boxes. 

Yakima County Auditor Charles Ross said he received some complaint calls about these centers, but noted that Washington law is OK with the practice that some consider “ballot harvesting.”

“I was watching this pretty close because we were consulting legal advice,” he said. “The law is pretty clear you can go ‘ballot harvesting’.”  

But while it’s not illegal to handle other voters’ sealed ballots, he does not recommend it. 

“Officially, we say it’s in your best interest to handle your ballot yourself,” Ross said.