Catholic voters throughout the nation swung massively in the direction of former President Trump within the 2024 election, contributing to his shock blowout victory on election evening.
Catholics have been evenly cut up between President Biden and Trump in 2020, with 50 p.c favoring Trump to 49 p.c favoring Biden.
In keeping with exit polling collected by Fox Information on election evening, Catholics throughout the nation swung 9 proportion factors in Trump’s favor, with the previous and now-future president successful Catholics by 10 factors.
Invoice Donohue, president of the non secular civil rights group Catholic League, advised Fox Information Digital that Catholics resoundingly rejected Harris due to what he known as a “clear animus in opposition to Catholics.”
“She was rejected primarily as a result of she is related to the politics of extremism, and that’s one thing the American individuals won’t ever countenance,” he mentioned.
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Former President Trump speaks throughout a marketing campaign occasion in Mint Hill, North Carolina, on Sept. 25. (AP Picture/Evan Vucci)
There are roughly 52 million Catholic adults within the U.S., making it the biggest non secular denomination within the nation. Till now, political beliefs amongst Catholic voters have been cut up between the 2 events, main many to imagine that there isn’t a such factor as a Catholic voting bloc.
However after Tuesday’s election outcomes, Brian Burch, president of the conservative activism group CatholicVote, is saying that Catholic voters proved that idea incorrect.
“There’s an rising electoral pattern right here that Republicans, if they’re sensible, will latch onto,” he advised Fox Information Digital.
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Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives to vote on the St. Anthony of Padua Maronite Catholic Church in Cincinnati on Tuesday. (AP Picture/Carolyn Kaster)
CatholicVote issued its first presidential endorsement in its historical past for Trump in January.
The group devoted $10 million to promoting, schooling and a “Catholic-to-Catholic” canvassing program emphasizing the vital swing states.
In keeping with a CatholicVote memo shared completely with Fox Information Digital, the group contacted over two million Catholic voters throughout the nation, together with roughly 100,000 “excessive affinity, low propensity Catholics” within the swing states Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The memo states that the 2024 election has confirmed that “Democrats have a Catholic drawback, and should now wrestle with the rising affect of the progressive wing of [the] occasion that’s brazenly hostile to individuals of religion.”
A bunch of Catholics maintain a “Rosary Rally for Non secular Respect,” organized by CatholicVote, outdoors the house of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Oct. 13. (CatholicVote)
Burch defined that “Democrats up to now have been capable of maintain collectively plenty of Catholic voters, whether or not by custom or by platitudes round social justice and posturing as in the event that they cared concerning the poor and weak.”
“It seems on this election, the poor and weak are the individuals affected by inflation and from an out-of-control border that had created crime and instability of their communities,” he mentioned.
Whereas the Catholic swing exceeded expectations on the nationwide stage, the margin of Catholic voters favoring Trump was even bigger in among the most important swing states.
In Pennsylvania, which has 19 electoral votes and was thought of an important swing state by each candidates, Catholics make up 1 / 4 of the citizens. In keeping with Fox exit polling, Catholic voters in Pennsylvania favored Trump by a 13-point margin of 56% to 43%.
Individuals line as much as vote at Park Tavern in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Reuters/Cheney Orr)
In the meantime, Catholic voters in two of the subsequent largest swing states — North Carolina (16 electoral votes) and Michigan (15 electoral votes) — voted in Trump’s favor by 17 and 20 proportion factors, respectively.
Trump additionally gained over Wisconsin Catholics by 16 proportion factors, serving to to ship the state’s 10 electoral votes to the previous president.
In keeping with the CatholicVote memo, there have been two key moments within the 2024 presidential race wherein Harris misplaced the Catholic vote. The primary was when Harris advised protesters in La Crosse, Wisconsin, that they have been “on the incorrect rally” after they shouted, “Jesus is lord.” The second was when Harris mentioned in an NBC interview that she opposed non secular exemptions for medical doctors offering abortions.
“Kamala Harris snubbed us, and he or she repeatedly affirmed our deepest fears about her animus and bigotry in the direction of Catholics. She opposed a judicial nominee as a result of he was Catholic. She launched laws that will lower our charities. She mentioned there can be no lodging for Catholics when it got here to her abortion insurance policies, which might successfully have ended Catholic well being care in America,” Burch defined.
Vice President Kamala Harris waits earlier than taking the stage for her remaining marketing campaign rally in Philadelphia on Monday. (AP Picture/Jacquelyn Martin)
In brief, Burch mentioned it grew to become clear that Harris introduced “a menace to our Catholic lifestyle.”
In the meantime, he mentioned that Trump’s message of enhancing the economic system and restoring regulation and order to the border and to communities has more and more linked with on a regular basis working-class Catholics.
What has emerged, Burch mentioned, is a “new synthesis” of what he known as “a populist social justice that prioritizes household first insurance policies, America first financial insurance policies, after which, in a bigger manner, the plight of the on a regular basis American who feels left behind by their very own authorities.”
President Trump holds a flashlight throughout a go to to the Cavalry Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, on Oct. 3, 2017. (Mandel Ngan/AFP through Getty Pictures)
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Burch shared that he has been in touch with Trump’s coverage advisers “pretty frequently” concerning the points most necessary to on a regular basis Catholics and their households. He mentioned that he spoke with Trump simply earlier than he took the stage at a rally in Milwaukee on Friday evening.
“We spoke concerning the significance of the Catholic vote and I advised him that… Catholics have been going to ship this election for him,” he mentioned. “It seems I used to be proper.”
