Our History and Mission
Planting Our Roots
In the early 2000s, members of the American Humanist Association wanted a political voice, so we built an advocacy arm — a 501(c)(4) that could lobby on every issue our members cared about. A decade later, when the religious right consolidated power and attacked secular institutions from within the government itself, we knew it was time to act.
Electing Fearless Leaders
In 2013, we responded to calls from our partners in the secular movement: We founded the Center for Freethought Equality PAC to elect candidates committed to safeguarding the separation of religion and government.
Building Representation
Pete Stark (CA-13) was the first open atheist in Congress. After he left office in 2013, the atheist and nonreligious community went without representation until Jared Huffman (CA-02) came out as a nonreligious Humanist in 2017. Huffman was soon joined by agnostic Yassamin Ansari and the religiously unaffiliated Emily Randall (WA-06) in 2025.
In 2026, the Center for Freethought Equality fueled Chris Rabb’s historic win in Pennsylvania as the first PAC to fund his campaign.
Growing Our Movement
Since founding the Center for Freethought Equality PAC, we’ve continued to endorse more and more candidates. 2018 was the first year our PAC endorsed over 100 candidates in a single election cycle.
The same year, we helped Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), and Dan Kildee (D-MI) found the Congressional Freethought Caucus, a group of Congress members committed to protecting true religious freedom, church-state separation and pursuing public policies based on facts, science and reason. The caucus started with just four members, but has since rapidly expanded to over 35 members.
Winning on the Hill
While the Center for Freethought Equality PAC expanded its reach, so did our lobbying arm. In 2020, the Center’s policy and political director, Rachel Deitch, testified in Congress on the harm of international blasphemy laws, and secured passage of our organization’s first piece of legislation with the support of an interfaith, bipartisan coalition.
Empowering Elected Officials
In the same year, we helped found the Association of Secular Elected Officials, a professional network and advocacy project empowering nonreligious public servants at all levels of American government. And in 2025, we incorporated the Association of Secular Elected Officials into the Center for Freethought Equality.
Gaining Momentum
And as our reach multiplied, the larger community we were advocating for grew along with it: the religiously unaffiliated population jumped from 16% of the U.S. population in 2007 to 29% in 2021. In 2012, only 12% of voters were religiously unaffiliated but that number had more than doubled by the 2020 election cycle.
The growing community of atheists, agnostics, nonreligious folk, Humanists and allies fueled our work. 2024 was a historic year for both our PAC and lobbying arm. We endorsed over 300 candidates in the election cycle, and expanded from primarily lobbying federally to working in state legislatures.
Reaching New Heights
In 2026, we are lobbying in 15 states. We’ve endorsed over 330 candidates for just this year’s midterms and we’re continuing to build:
Prior to 2016, only 5 state legislators identified with the Humanist and atheist community, so we stepped up to fight for candidates who shared our values. Today there are 75+ state and federal legislators across 31 states, and 3 Members of Congress who identify with our community.
