Christian Voters Strongly Favor Republicans in New Poll
One of the biggest gaps in U.S. politics is between Christian and secular voters. In last year’s presidential elections, Christian voters went for Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris by a two-to-one margin.
“You can’t be the majority party if you ignore the majority faith in this country,” progressive pastor Doug Pagitt told “Time” magazine. “We know there’s this tension in the party.”
Pagitt also is executive director of Vote Common Good, which focuses on mobilizing voters of faith. He recently commissioned a poll of Christian voters, who are the nation’s largest voting bloc. Three-quarters said they have little or no trust in the Democratic Party; 70 percent have little to no confidence in the federal government; and 61 percent of believe life in America is harder today for people of faith than it was 10 years ago.
Other polls have also discovered the same voter trends.
“Republicans have made a concerted effort,” Pagitt said. “Democrats have done everything they can never to name that identity. They have a built-in bias against these identities in the Democratic Party.”
Last year, with Christians accounting for 64 percent of the electorate, Trump dominated Harris, who ran afoul of many with her comments about faith. He carried the 21 percent of the electorate that identifies as Catholics by a 59-39 margin and the 43 percent of the electorate that identifies as generically Christian by a 63-36 margin, according to exit polls.
The survey found that half of Christians believe religion is losing influence in American life. Six in 10 of these Christian voters say they reliably back Republicans, and 62 percent say they would never consider voting for a Democrat. Both the Democratic Party and its voters are seen as unfriendly toward Christianity. In Pagitt’s survey, 58 percent of Christians see the Democratic Party as hostile to Christianity and 54 percent see the same traits among Democratic voters.
Common Good launched in 2018 to help progressive efforts connect with faith traditions and constantly has to face reluctance to tell their personal stories. But in training sessions regardless of locality, Pagitt boils down his message on faith outreach to six simple words: “I like you” and “we need you.” Once that respect is signaled to voters of faith, he said, a conversation on substance is easier. Still, it’s not like Democrats are going to turn around trends in this super-majority voting bloc easily.
“They squandered it,” Pagitt said of the Democrats. “They just walked away.”
–Alan Goforth
