Most Catholics and Protestants say they voted for the once and future president, Donald Trump, in Tuesday’s election, while most nonreligious Americans seem to have favored Vice President Kamala Harris, a new survey shows.
The Faith & Freedom Coalition, a group claiming 3 million activists and donors, released survey results Wednesday showing that 72% of Americans who claim they aren’t part of a religion said they voted for Harris and for Democrats running for the House or Senate.
On the other hand, nearly 60% of people of faith surveyed said they voted for Trump or for Republican congressional candidates. Exactly 56% said they voted for Trump and 58% for GOP congressional candidates.
Of those people of faith, 60% of Protestants said they voted for Trump and 58% of Catholics said they did the same. Sixty-one percent of Catholics said they voted for Republican congressional candidates, as did 60% of Protestants.
Public Opinion Strategies interviewed 800 individuals by phone on election night for the Faith & Freedom Coalition, speaking to those who said that they had voted. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.
Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, said at a press conference Wednesday that Harris’ liberal stance on abortion may have turned off voters of faith, and that Democrats have a “religion problem” in their party.
Reed also attributed the defeat of two ballot questions in Florida, one on abortion rights and one legalizing marijuana, to Trump’s overperformance among Hispanic, faith-based voters. The coalition registered voters in Hispanic churches, he said.
Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, which calls itself the nation’s largest public policy organization for women, said her group was part of the coalition’s get-out-the-vote effort.
Fully 70% of voters surveyed said their votes were influenced by social issues related to Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination against women in schools that receive federal funds, Nance said.
She said voters told Concerned Women for America that it’s important not to allow boys or men in girls or women’s sports or in their safe spaces such as restrooms and locker rooms.
All told, about 600 volunteers knocked on doors in an effort to visit 10 million households, Reed said.