by Jorge Gomez • 5 minutes
Polls suggest that religious voters could sway the race between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.
CBN News reports a stark disparity in how much support each of the presidential candidates is receiving from faith voters. “President Biden is trailing Donald Trump among voters who regularly attend religious services, a phenomenon extending beyond the traditional support base of evangelical Christians,” per CBN.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that President Trump’s appeal among religious voters is expanding,” noted Nathan Gonzalez of Inside Elections, a nonpartisan analysis of campaigns for Senate, House, governor and president. “As we approach Election Day, every vote, particularly from faith voters, will be crucial.”
In an op-ed for the National Catholic Reporter, Thomas Reese writes that Catholics are much more than just an important voting bloc. He argues they’re the ones who could decide who ends up winning the White House.
“Because they reside in significant numbers in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada, they have all the more power to decide who will be the next president,” Reese says. “Indeed they tend to vote for the winner in presidential elections. If you win Catholics, you probably win the country.”
“Evangelicals secured Trump’s victory in 2016. A slight edge from Biden’s fellow Catholics carried him in 2020,” according to Samuel Benson at Deseret News. But Evangelicals and Catholics aren’t the only ones with electoral influence. Benson also makes the case that voters of diverse faith traditions are also playing a huge role, explaining that Muslims in key battleground states appear to be abandoning Biden and his party.
“This cycle, Muslims in the Midwest are frustrated with Biden’s loyalty to Israel,” Benson writes. “I’m also eyeing Latter-day Saints in Arizona and Nevada, two of the battleground states, who are perhaps more dissatisfied by both of the two major parties than any other religious group.”
In Wisconsin—one of the swing states for 2024—religious groups, temples and black churches are all encouraging people of faith to extend “a longstanding historical connection with the ballot.” Faith leaders in Milwaukee and Madison in particular are sending the message to their community that “choosing not to vote is a choice, as much as choosing to vote.”
In June, the Faith and Freedom Coalition hosted its annual “Road to Majority” conference in Washington, D.C., where members Congress were asked about the role faith voters will play in the upcoming election.
“They play a huge role, a decisive role,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told Fox News Digital. “There’s no majority for the Republican Party without voters of faith. And they’re going to decide this election. So we need them to turn out.”
Tulsi Gabbard—former Hawaii congresswoman and rumored to be on Donald Trump’s shortlist for vice president—said the Democratic Party “is trying to erase God from every facet of our public life.”
“We will play a critical role, especially at a time where we have the Biden-Harris administration and the Democrat elite who, are fundamentally against freedom, including freedom of religion, and have a long track record that threatens people of faith and spirituality,” Gabbard told Fox.
With religious liberty facing increasing threats and attacks, Gabbard encouraged people of faith to make their voice heard. “Now more than ever people of faith, people of spirituality need to stand up, to defend this fundamental, God-given right and stop those who are trying to take it away from us,” she said.
“This is a moment for folks of faith to stand up and be counted and be engaged in the public square, in the marketplace of ideas, and certainly in the November election,” said Daniel Cameron, former Attorney General of Kentucky.
Election Day is a few months away. People of faith in America should remember that elections have consequences. There’s a lot at stake this election cycle, including integrity of the Supreme Court and many of our cherished rights, starting with religious freedom.
Whether an election is to fill a seat on a local school board or the Oval Office, we keep seeing anti-religious-liberty candidates elected who then promote their anti-religious-liberty policies. They’re determined to steer America away from our constitutional heritage, while ushering in extreme agendas and ideology that are hostile to people of faith.
How did they gain so much power? The answer is obvious: People of faith largely stayed home and didn’t bother to vote. If more of us took the voting process more seriously, our culture and government would not be nearly as hostile to religious liberty.
This election season, we encourage every religious American to vote according to their conscience and their values. Every person of faith should know this: protecting religious freedom and all our God-given liberties isn’t just a battle that we’re fighting in the courtroom. It’s a fight that we can also win at the ballot box.
Learn More:
CBN News: Faith-Based Voters Poised to Shape 2024 Presidential Election
Pew Research: Religious values and the 2024 election
Pew Research: Party identification among religious groups and religiously unaffiliated voters
Fox News: Faith voters will ‘decide this election,’ according to prominent GOP members
Brookings Institution: The Black Church and the 2024 presidential election
Deseret News: Religious voters and the 2024 election
The Christian Post: As Trump, Biden Battle Heats Up, ‘Politics In The Pews’ Tackles Intersection Of Evangelicalism And Elections
First Liberty: 2024 Election: The Future of the Supreme Court Could Be at Stake
First Liberty: The Supreme Importance of Your Vote
First Liberty: The Power to Change America is in Your Vote
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