“People of faith are more and more stepping forward to run for office because part of the job of being a pastor is, to use the metaphor, ‘to be a shepherd,’” Schultz told me in a phone call from his home in Anchorage last month. “All of these people are coming to me and saying, ‘Please, won’t you help me? Please, won’t somebody do something to stop this onslaught of cruelty? We’re crying out in pain.’ And as a pastor, it’s my duty to stand between the abusers and the abused.”

The other candidates I spoke with had similar reflections. They didn’t see themselves as inherently political. But they felt morally and spiritually called to run for office. Much of their motivation arose from Trump’s treatment of immigrants and his slashing of the social safety net. But their aperture extended further back than the current administration. They felt that for too long the Republican party had distorted Christian values and the Democrats had allowed their opponents to monopolize faith.

“As a white Christian voter, you know, I think perhaps we’ve let the Republicans take some ownership in that space of faith-based leadership,” Molder told me.

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