I also suspect grifting. Like, a quite pathetic grift are the so-called longtime atheists who "found god" and use that as a selling point. I have no doubt there are genuine atheists who turned to faith, e.g. Francis Collins. Likewise for Republicans, I have no doubt there are all kinds of people with distinct conservative values, they just aren't paraded around. Hard to say either way.
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard P. Feynman