Welcome to the FFRF Action Fund’s Federal, State, and Local Candidate Endorsement Questionnaire (link to the questionnaire is at the bottom of the page).

By participating in this questionnaire, you have the opportunity to connect with and represent a significant and growing demographic—the non-religious population, which now comprises roughly a third of Americans. Furthermore, the FFRF Action Fund has over 40,000 advocates across the United States, many of whom donate regularly to and get involved with political candidates. 

Completing this questionnaire demonstrates your commitment to upholding secular values, and provides clear communication of your policy positions to a substantial and engaged part of the electorate. 

Mandatory criteria for endorsement:

The candidate has:

• Has demonstrated a reasonable path to victory/can mount a competitive campaign
• Supports the separation of state and church, and the policies closely attached to the principle
• Supports reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy

Other helpful criteria:

The candidate:

• Is a freethinker (i.e., not religious, atheist, humanist, agnostic, etc.)
• Completed a candidate training program 
• Has a history engaging in local- or state-level politics
• Has been endorsed by local leaders and/or national or local organizations
• If a race falls into a high priority area:
  • Has an opponent who is a Christian nationalist or Christian nationalists have targeted the race
  • District is a competitive electoral target 

Notes on the endorsement process and procedure:

• Prospective candidates will be asked about all of the above information in the candidate questionnaire
• Endorsements are made on a rolling basis and are decided monthly by the FFRF AF Board of Directors
• FFRF AF generally avoids endorsing in higher-profile contentious primaries
• The endorsement process takes approximately 1 month to complete
• Endorsements will not be made more than 18 months before the first election date
• After the candidate has submitted their questionnaire, they will be sent an email if they will be moving forward with the endorsement process based on the above criteria. Then:
  • We will schedule with the candidate an interview to review the information in the questionnaire;
  • FFRF AF will then check the references of the candidate;
  • FFRF AF will recommend to the FFRF AF Board to endorse the candidate
  • Candidate is then notified of the decision and can publicize the endorsement however they see fit.