A total of nine Latter-day Saints, all Republican and all from Utah or neighboring states, reported for duty this week in Washington as part of the newly elected 119th Congress, according to the Pew Research Center.
This profile mirrors those of the past two congressional cohorts — but contrasts with those from 10 to 20 years ago, when the number of federal lawmakers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hovered around 14 and included elected leaders from both sides of the aisle.
This is no fluke, according to historian Benjamin Park. Rather, the author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism” attributes this narrowing to rampant political polarization and the “MAGA-ification” of the Republican Party.
As a result, Park argued, “we’re losing that space” previously occupied by Latter-day Saint politicians in the style of Mitt Romney, the newly retired senator from Utah, and Jeff Flake, a former senator out of Arizona. Both made headlines as outspoken GOP critics of Donald Trump.
Another once-familiar Latter-day Saint no longer seen on Capitol Hill is the late Nevada Democrat Harry Reid, who retired in 2017 and, as Senate majority leader, became the highest-ranking elected Latter-day Saint in U.S. history. His departure was followed by a former Democratic senator for New Mexico, Tom Udall, who left Congress in 2021 — the same year Utah Democrat Ben McAdams left after losing his House seat after a single term.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, speaking in 2023, was the most recent Utah Democratic Latter-day Saint in Congress.
McAdams, a former mayor of Salt Lake County, and Udall were the last Democratic Latter-day Saints in Congress.
The class of 2025
Here is the current all-Republican class of congressional Latter-day Saints:
• Rep. Blake Moore of Utah.
• Rep. Mike Kennedy of Utah.
• Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah.
• Rep. Celeste Maloy of Utah.
• Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona.
• Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho.
• Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho.
• Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.
• Sen. John Curtis of Utah.
(Tom Brenner | The New York Times) Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, is ceremonially sworn in to office by Vice President Kamala Harris, right, at the Capitol in Washington on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025.
Of these, Park speculated that Curtis, who replaced Romney, is most likely to carry the moderate Republican torch of his forebear.
An ex-Democrat, the former mayor of Provo has already helped spoil at least one of Trump’s plans, joining at least three other senators in successfully opposing the incoming president’s first pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz.
Part of a wider decrease
Latter-day Saints aren’t the only ones to witness a slow decline in representation in Congress. The number of Christians as a whole (including members of the Utah-based faith) in the U.S. House and Senate has eroded from 491 a decade ago to 461 today.
“And yet,” the Pew Research Center reports, “at 87%, Christians still make up the lion’s share of the Congress,” far outpacing the 62% of all U.S. adults who claim the faith.
Well over half — 295 out of 461 Christians — are Protestants, of whom Baptists, at 14%, make up the biggest chunk.
Latter-day Saints, at 1.7% of Congress, are also overrepresented in Congress when compared to the country’s overall adult population, only 1% of whom, per Pew, identify as members of the faith.
Where Catholics stand
In contrast, Catholics made tremendous strides in congressional representation from the 1960s, the decade in which the country elected its first Catholic president in John F. Kennedy, all the way through the turn of the century. Since then, that tally has ping-ponged between 148 and 168, landing on 150 for 2025-27.
That same period also corresponded with an increase in the number of Jewish representatives, which peaked during President Barack Obama’s first term at 45 before dropping into the 30s, where it has floated since.
“Other” and “Don’t Know/Refused,” meanwhile, have both seen steady growth, and include four Muslims (up by one compared to the past session), four Hindus (up by two) and three Buddhists (up by one).
On the whole, Congress is much more religious than the U.S. population as a whole. Case in point: Nearly 30% of the country’s adults identify as religiously unaffiliated — compared with 0.6% of the Capitol gang.
“It turns out,” Park said, “the spiritual but not religious,” as many so-called nones identify themselves, “aren’t religious enough for Republicans and are too spiritual for Democrats.”
