Initial polling data from the US presidential election indicates that the Christian vote was crucial to Donald Trump’s victory.
It showed that 72% of white Protestants and 61% of white Catholics voted for the return of Mr. Trump to The White House.
So did more than 80% of Americans who identify as evangelicals — an increase on their support in both 2016 and 2020.
Political science associate professor at Eastern Illinois University, and former pastor, Ryan Burge, said that strength of support sealed the Trump triumph in the crucial rust belt swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“It’s hard to overcome the white God gap in those places,” he told Religion News Service (RNS).
It reported that white Christians remain the largest religious segment of the country, making up about 42% of the population, according to data from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
Mr. Trump also won the Christian vote overall including African Americans, Hispanics and Asians. 58% of all Catholics voted for him and 63% of all Protestants, according to the exit polls.
If those numbers hold steady it will prove to be a significant jump on 2020 when 50% of Catholics supported Mr. Trump compared with 2020.
Almost two-thirds of Hispanic Protestants (64%) and just over half of Hispanic Catholic voters (53%) backed the former President. In 2020 just a third of Hispanic Catholics voted his way.
PRRI president Robert Jones said more data is needed to understand the Hispanic vote in this week’s result, but speculates that economics, rather than religion, was the major role in the increased Hispanic vote for Mr. Trump.
“They don’t feel like their situation has improved over the past four years,” he said.
Mr. Jones told RNS the Trump campaign was able to send two distinct messages.
One was about being tough on immigration and crime, which appealed to white Christians — and the other was about the economy, which appealed to Hispanic Christians.
Mr. Burge suspects Hispanic Catholics and Protestants are more conservative on social issues, such as abortion and LGBT rights, which may also have played a role in the outcome.
He believes the Harris campaign’s domineering policy on abortion rights may have backfired with Hispanic Christians explaining: “That’s a hard message for a moderate Hispanic voter.”
The political science professor told RNS: “All they are thinking is, gas is expensive, bread is expensive, milk is expensive. Let’s try something else. That’s the story.”
Religion News Service postulates that: “Both white and Hispanic Christians may also be worried about the changing nature of America and the decline of religion’s power in the culture.”
“While few Americans want the nation to have an official Christian religion, many do see Christianity as important — or feel a nostalgia for God and country patriotism — rather than a culture where secular values dominate,” it wrote.
Samuel Perry, a University of Oklahoma sociologist who studies Christian nationalism and other religious trends, believes the growth of non-denominational and Pentecostal churches may have been another significant factor.
“Those churches are often multi-ethnic, with Christians of colour joining majority-white churches that often lean Republican. That can affect their voting patterns,” he noted
“Their allegiance is not to their ethnic group, which tends to vote Democrat. It’s going to be more of a multi-ethnic conservative, white-dominated Christianity that unequivocally votes Republican.”
PRRI’s RobertJones pointed out this week’s election once again shows the close allegiance between white Christians and the Republican Party and the divided nature of religion in America.
He underlined that most faith categories in America — Jews, Muslims, Black Protestants, non-religious Americans and, until this week, Hispanic Catholics have supported the Democratic Party.
White Christians, on the other hand, remained tied to Republicans. “They have not moved a centimetre,” asserted Mr. Jones.
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