pressure on Catholics seeking the Republican Party nomination for president of the United States in 2016, including Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum, who "have questioned or denied the established science of human-caused climate change, and have harshly criticized policies designed to tax or regulate the burning of fossil fuels." Religious tensions were major issues in the presidential election of 1928 when the Democrats nominated Al Smith, a Catholic who was defeated, and in 1960 when the Democrats also nominated John F. Kennedy, a Catholic who was elected. For the next three elections, a Catholic would be nominated for the vice presidency by one of the two major parties (Bill Miller in 1964, Ed Muskie in 1968, Tom Eagleton and then Sarge Shriver in 1972), but the ticket would lose. Geraldine Ferraro would continue the tradition in 1984, but she also lost, and the non-Catholic vice-presidential streak was broken in 2008. A Catholic, John Kerry, lost the 2004 election to incumbent George W. Bush, a Methodist, who may have won the majority of Catholic vote. The 2012 election was the first where both major party vice presidential candidates were Catholic, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. , there are 27 (out of 100) Catholics in the United States Senate, and 122 (out of 435) Catholics in the United States House of Representatives, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. In 2008, Joe Biden became the first Catholic to be elected Vice President of the United States. His successor Mike Pence was raised as a Catholic but he converted to evangelical Protestantism later in his life. In 2020, Biden went on to be elected as the second Roman Catholic president of the United States. 19th century Before 1840, Catholics constituted a small minority and as a result, they played a relatively minor role in early American history. Catholics only constituted a significant community in Maryland and Baltimore became an early center of Catholicism. From the American Revolution until the end of the 18th century, about 1% of the American population (about 30,000) was Catholic. Still, Catholics were among the Founding Fathers and they were also a part of the First Congress; Daniel Carroll serving Maryland's 6th congressional district, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton serving as the first senator from Maryland. Presidential candidates did not seek Catholic votes until Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay did so in 1832. Catholics and urban America The role of