The religious left needs help. And you can help it.

My colleague Heidi Schlumpf recently reported on a "Vote Common Good" summit in Des Moines that was organized by a group of left-leaning evangelicals and Roman Catholics. The only presidential candidate to attend was Marianne Williamson, and she dropped out of the race the next day! If there was a perception that the Catholic left had some electoral juice, you can bet that other candidates would have put the event on their calendar.

On the other hand, the religious right is as powerful as ever. And as corrupt as ever. As I write, the March for Life is happening on the National Mall in Washington and the organizers are thrilled that a sitting president, for the first time ever, will address the rally in person. Fresh from crowing about the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, determined to make life miserable for the desperate immigrants who flock to our southern border, aiming to restart federal executions, a man whose lips and twitter feed are dripping in insults, this man will be celebrated as a hero to the pro-life movement. It is to weep.

National Catholic Reporter is the newspaper for record for the Catholic left. We have been the outlet covering social justice issues for fifty years. We have been the ones objecting to clericalist cover-ups of sex abuse. We have investigated the increasing role of money, conservative money, in the life of the Church. We are the ones reporting on the way some Republican operatives in Catholic drag are, without permission from anyone, geofencing Mass attendees in hopes of flooding their iPhones with ads promoting the president's reelection. We are also the outlet that is not afraid to challenge the religious or political left when it gets goofy or strays from its principles!

As the country begins to focus on the election, Catholic voters will be critical. Luzern County in Pennsylvania is 44% Catholic. In 2008, Barack Obama won the county by an 8-point margin. In 2012, he won it by 5 points. In 2016, Donald Trump won it by 19 points. How did that happen? Dubuque County in the swing state of Iowa is another example. It is 56% Catholic and in 2008, Obama won the county by a 21-point margin. That margin shrunk to 15% in 2012. Trump won the county by a single point in 2016, but he won it. What made those voters, many of them Catholics, flip? And what role will Latino Catholics play in swing states like Arizona, Virginia and Florida?

Those are some of the stories we will be looking at. Already we have reports by Schlumpf and Brian Roewe from Iowa. I filed a piece about New Hampshire. Where will you get the Catholic angle except here?

We can't do it without your help. Hotel rooms, rental cars, flights, it all adds up. And, in addition to the reporters, there are editors and production staff to help get our writing out to you. It is a group effort, and you can be part of the group. Please become an NCR Forward member and help us continue the work that nobody else is going to do if we do not do it.