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In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s historic electoral victory earlier this month, media pundits and talking heads have focused on his significant gains among traditionally Democratic voting blocs, such as young voters and both black and Hispanic men.
But a new study is suggesting that it was Christian voters who were the decisive factor in Trump’s win.
George Barna, senior research fellow for the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council and director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, published his postelection report last week demonstrating that Christian voters “made the difference in the race.”
Prior to the election, Barna had anticipated voter turnout among Christians would be low, with as many as 40 million Christians simply choosing not to vote. While Christians did vote in fewer numbers than they did in 2020, Barna noted that the “potentially devastating impact for the Trump campaign was blunted by the even lower levels of turnout among the Harris campaign’s target segments.”
Overall, 56% of self-identified Christians voted in 2024, which Barna pointed out “was barely higher than the involvement among people aligned with non-Christian faiths (53%), but significantly higher than among voting-age Americans who have no religious faith (48%).” Interestingly, Catholic voters and Christians with a biblical worldview both outperformed their 2020 turnout by three points.
“Trump was a heavy favorite among most of the three dozen Christian segments studied by the Cultural Research Center survey. The former president received a landslide 56% to 43% margin of victory among all self-identified Christians,” Barna observed. “Among the approximately 75 million votes Trump garnered in the election, more than three-quarters of them—78%—came from the Christian community.”
Barna also noted that Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, scored low among almost all Christian denominations and demographics, with the exception of “mainline and traditionally black Protestant congregations.” Overall, less than two-thirds of Harris’ votes came from Christians.
The majority of Christian voters also identified their religious beliefs, the differing party platforms, and the insight of their family as the biggest impacts on their choice of candidates. “Consistent with the patterns established, Trump voters were twice as likely as Harris voters to identify their religious faith as a major influence on their candidate of choice (30% vs. 14%, respectively),” Barna noted.
In comments to The Washington Stand, Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, explained, “Religion gives people a worldview which, among other things, gives people a way to understand what’s wrong with the world and what the solution is. Elections are one way people indicate their understanding of what’s wrong and what we need to do to fix it.” --->READ MORE HERE
New post-election research shows that Christian support was crucial in Donald Trump’s 2024 landslide victory, showing that Christians made up 72% of the electorate and gave Trump 56% of their vote.
In comparison, among people of other faiths or no faith, Vice President Kamala Harris was preferred with 60% of the non-Christian vote. Although Harris won a larger share of the non-Christian vote than Trump’s share of the Christian votes, Christians outnumbered non-Christian voters by more than a five-to-two margin—delivering the decisive Nov. 5 victory to President Trump.
According to the 2024 Post-Election Survey from Dr. George Barna and the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, among self-identified Christians, 56% voted. The findings show notable engagement from SAGE Cons (i.e. Spiritually Active Governance Engaged Conservative Christians), who held true to form and almost universally voted (99% turnout, repeating their 2020 level and eight points higher than their 2016 turnout), Catholics (70%), and those holding a biblical worldview (67%). However, turnout declined among those affiliated with non-Christian faiths and those without religious affiliation.
As expected, the post-election research shows that total voter turnout was low compared to 2020. Despite extensive campaign spending and media coverage, 45% of voting-age Americans abstained from voting, with only 55% of the voting-age population casting ballots, down from 62% in 2020, according to the research findings.
Earlier 2024 Pre-Election Research from the Cultural Research Center correctly predicted that turnout among Christians would fall below 2020 levels, but that potentially devastating impact for the Trump campaign was blunted by the even lower levels of turnout among the Harris campaign’s target segments.
In fact, close to one-half of the voting-age population (45%) chose not to bother voting, despite both parties as well as candidates in all states and at all levels of government engaging in record-breaking spending and extensive get-out-the-vote campaigns (GOTV).
The most common reason for not voting was lethargy. One out of five voting-age, self-identified Christians (20%) said they had intended to vote but simply forgot or never got around to it. There was a similar level of neglect among non-Christian adults, as one-sixth of them gave the same reason.
Still the turnout of Christian voters may seem surprising. As Barna noted, because of negative messages in the culture and in mainstream media, Americans often forget that two-thirds of adults in this nation consider themselves to be Christians.
“Even though very few American adults have a distinctively biblical worldview (just 4 percent),” he explained, “most adults have embraced basic principles and tendencies advocated by well-known Bible stories and teachings, attributes that have historically been building blocks of the nation.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
Christian voters swayed 2024 presidential election, data show
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