Former President Donald Trump is leading incumbent Joe Biden among American Catholics, according to the latest polls from battleground states. A new survey from the League of American Workers shows Trump leading Biden by double digits among Catholic voters in Michigan. In a head-to-head matchup between the 45th president and his geriatric successor, Trump would win among Michigan Catholics 54 percent to 31 percent, with 15 percent undecided. When independent and third-party candidates are thrown into the mix, Trump still maintains a 21-point lead over Biden, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. coming in third place.

Of note, the survey also shows that Catholic voters find Biden and the Democratic Party to be “too extreme” when it comes to abortion. More than half of Michigan Catholics told pollsters that Democrats take abortion policy too far, with only about a third backing the Party’s extremist abortion agenda. For comparison, mainline protestants, atheists, and the religiously unaffiliated all say that Democrats are “inside the mainstream” when it comes to the slaughter of unborn children. (READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy: Ireland’s Left-Wing Government Leader Resigns)

In fact, abortion has been a key factor in driving Catholics away from the Democratic Party for decades. Long before progressives began championing “trans rights,” abortion was the issue that pushed Catholics to vote red, not blue. In 1972, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its diabolical decision in Roe v. Wade, nearly 70 percent of American Catholics were allied with the Democratic Party, while barely 20 percent were part of the GOP. Even in the wake of the Roe decision, Catholic influence in the Democratic Party led to blue states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island implementing stringent restrictions on abortion and even fighting in federal court to ban the barbaric practice.

According to the American National Election Study, which began charting voting statistics as early as 1960, white Catholics began drifting away from the Democratic Party even before Roe was handed down. Catholic bishops, encouraged and informed by Pope St. Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae and prescient enough to anticipate the Supreme Court’s eventual decision, began forming the nation’s first organized pro-life efforts, often under the auspices of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

By 1968, less than two thirds (60 percent) of white American Catholics voted Democrat, and on the eve of the Roe decision, nearly two thirds (63 percent) voted for Republican Richard Nixon. The Democratic Party has never recovered or even come close to recovering the support of American Catholics. By 2021, nearly half of white American Catholics were registered as Republicans, 20 percent were registered as independents, and only about a third were registered as Democrats.

Additionally, the more often Catholics attend Mass, the more likely they are to vote red. Among lapsed Catholics who no longer attend Mass, 56 percent voted Republican in 2016 and 55 percent in 2020. Among self-described Catholics who attend Mass “seldom” or “yearly,” the number stay much the same. But among Catholics who attend Mass more regularly, the numbers increase. Self-described Catholics who attend Mass “monthly” voted Republican by 55 percent in 2016 and by 62 percent in 2020. Among Catholics who attend Mass “weekly,” 64 percent voted Republican in both 2016 and 2020. And among those who attend Mass once a week or more, 73 percent voted Republican in both 2016 and 2020.

The impact of the Mass is even clearer when examining Catholics’ views on abortion. Among self-described Catholics who attend Mass less than once a week, only 34 percent favor abortion restrictions, while 49 percent favor abortion being “legal in most cases” and 16 percent favor abortion being “legal in all cases, no exceptions,” according to a 2022 Pew Research Center study. But among Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week, only 4 percent say abortion should be “legal in all cases, no exceptions,” while 26 percent say abortion should be “legal in most cases” and 68 percent say abortion should be illegal, including 24 percent who say it should be “illegal in all cases, no exceptions.” Among those who attend the old Tridentine Mass, only 1 percent say abortion is acceptable. (READ MORE: Polish Bishops’ Fight Leftist Government Onslaught)

Immigration, inflation, crime, housing, and election integrity are all, of course, major issues heading into November’s elections. But for Catholics, abortion is and must remain the “preeminent priority” at the ballot box. Trump has certified his pro-life bona fides in appointing and enabling a majority-Catholic Supreme Court to overturn Roe. Provided he continues fighting for the unborn, the most vulnerable demographic of all, then he can count on the continued support of America’s Catholics.