Faithful Politics

Who should choose a party’s vice presidential nominee - the presidential candidate or the delegates?

Mike ter Maat, the Libertarian Party’s 2024 vice-presidential nominee, joins Faithful Politics to explain why he wants to change how the Republican Party chooses its VP candidate. ter Maat is now seeking the GOP’s 2028 vice-presidential nomination while arguing that Republican convention delegates should independently select the nominee rather than simply accepting the presidential candidate’s choice. His campaign publicly describes delegate selection of the VP nominee as its central proposal.

Josh and Mike discuss Republican convention rules, the modern vice presidency, and whether a VP with an independent political base could provide another check on concentrated presidential power. They also examine ter Maat’s move from the Libertarian Party into the Republican liberty movement, his critique of both major parties, and his broader argument that political institutions need stronger internal checks and more room for disagreement.

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Mike ter Maat is an economist, former police officer, and the Libertarian Party’s 2024 vice-presidential nominee. Libertarian delegates selected ter Maat as their vice-presidential nominee at the party’s May 2024 national convention, where he received a majority on the second ballot.
After the 2024 election, ter Maat moved into Republican politics and is now seeking the Republican Party’s 2028 vice-presidential nomination. His campaign is built around giving Republican convention delegates an independent role in choosing the party’s VP nominee. Earlier in his career, he worked as an economist, including at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and later spent more than 11 years in law enforcement in Broward County, Florida.

For Faithful Politics, this conversation is especially local. Rep. Rob Wittman represents Virginia’s 1st Congressional District, the same district where our Josh lives.

We ask Wittman, in this shorter interview, what Congress can do about the cost of living, including energy, housing, health care, and grocery prices. We also press him on President Trump’s proposed $5,000 payment to Americans and how Congress would pay for it.

The conversation then turns to the Republican Party and a question many conservatives are wrestling with: when should a Republican member of Congress be willing to disagree with Donald Trump? Wittman points to his vote to override Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act and his opposition to proposed cuts to Chesapeake Bay funding as examples.

We also discuss political division, his bipartisan relationships in Congress, and what he believes Washington can do to rebuild some level of trust across party lines.

Finally, with Wittman seeking another term representing VA-01, we ask him directly why voters should choose him over Democratic nominee Shannon Taylor. Wittman discusses his record in Congress and raises several criticisms of Taylor’s record as Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney.

LINK MENTIONED IN THE INTERVIEW
 SoftShannonTaylor.com 

Guest Bio:
Rep. Rob Wittman has represented Virginia’s 1st Congressional District since 2007. He serves as vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and chairs its Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, giving him a central role in debates over national defense and military readiness. He also serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, with a particular focus on the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia’s coastal communities. Before Congress, Wittman worked in state government and served in local and state elected office. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Why are millions of women walking away from American churches, and what finally pushes them to leave?

Journalist Sarah Stankorb, author of Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion, traces an exodus she says has been building for decades. The conversation examines purity culture, sexual abuse and institutional cover-ups, racism, LGBTQ exclusion, political polarization, and the growing influence of Christian nationalism. 

Stankorb explains why leaving is rarely about a single event. For many women, questions and contradictions accumulate until the institution they trusted becomes impossible to reconcile with the faith and values they were taught. Some leave Christianity entirely. Others reach a different conclusion: they never lost faith in God. They lost faith in the church.

The conversation also looks at Gen Z women, deconstruction, the Christian Right, and what the continued departure of women could mean for the future of American religion. Stankorb's book documents this trend through women's stories from the 1980s through today

Book: Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion
https://bookshop.org/a/112456/9798889837091

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Sarah Stankorb is an award-winning journalist and author whose reporting focuses on religion, politics, gender, and power. She is the author of the national bestseller Disobedient Women and Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Vogue, and Elle. She studied religion and philosophy at Westminster College and ethics and South Asian religion and history at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

What happens when moderation becomes a political liability inside your own party?

Filmmakers Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris join Faithful Politics to discuss The Life of the Party, their documentary following three Republican women in Texas whose careers reveal a party undergoing significant change.

Former State Rep. Sarah Davis was once the last pro-choice Republican in the Texas House and represents a tradition of moderate dissent. Former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, the first Mexican-born woman elected to Congress, represents a newer, faith-driven and MAGA-aligned Republican coalition. And longtime State Rep. Geanie Morrison reflects on an older political culture where bipartisan relationships and compromise were more common.

Together, the filmmakers describe them as an outlier, an outsider, and an old guard.

We talk about abortion, faith, MAGA, women as the Republican Party’s political organizers, partisan purity tests, political identity, and what disappears when disagreement becomes disloyalty. Meg and Scott also explain what they learned as liberal filmmakers spending a year listening to conservative women and why relationships across political differences still matter.

Watch the film: https://universecreative.org/the-life-of-the-party/
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Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris are documentary filmmakers, producers, and co-founders of Universe Creative. Their work focuses on stories that complicate political and cultural assumptions and elevate perspectives that are often overlooked. Before founding Universe Creative in 2017, they worked together at Teach For America and later in social-impact video strategy. Their documentaries include Impossible Town and The Life of the Party, which follows three Republican women navigating leadership, identity, and political change in Texas.

The Department of Homeland Security sent undercover agents into churches to monitor anti-ICE activists. In at least one case, an agent entered a Baptist church that was already protected by a federal court order restricting certain DHS activity on the property.

Brian Kaylor, president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, joins us to walk through the court documents behind his reporting. We discuss DHS surveillance at at least five churches in Minnesota and Michigan, agents secretly recording meetings, collecting license plate information, and monitoring people who were not themselves targets of the investigation.

The conversation also gets into the difference between judicial and administrative warrants, First Amendment protections for houses of worship, government surveillance of religious communities after 9/11 and during the Reagan era, and what Kaylor calls the “imperial boomerang” - surveillance powers created for one purpose eventually being used elsewhere.

Subscribe: https://publicwitness.wordandway.org

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Brian Kaylor is president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way and leads its newsletter, A Public Witness, which covers religion, politics, and culture. He is a Baptist minister with a Ph.D. in political communication and the author or co-author of seven books on religion and politics. His recent reporting has examined Department of Homeland Security surveillance of churches and religious liberty questions surrounding immigration enforcement.