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| Photo: 538.com |
New polling conducted by Pew Research and released by 538 may clarify the trajectory of Evangelical and Catholic vote between the 2012 and 2016 election cycles. In a piece by Lea Libresco, the site says Trump may be driving Catholic voters toward Clinton. While Evangelical support for the Democrat remains nearly the same from the last election to the current contest, Libresco contends their motives are different.
In fact, Trump has done more to drive weekly churchgoers to the Democrats than Clinton has done to attract them. Evangelicals and Catholics who attend church regularly and favor the Democratic nominee consider Clinton a less appealing choice than Obama was.
While Catholics have traditionally been s more Democratic voting block, their seeming “leftward move” is more a visceral reaction to Trump’s nasty attacks on people. Ms. Libresco quotes Matthew Schmitz, a Catholic and literary editor for “First Things” as being critical of Trump’s “great cruelty toward those who cannot wish themselves into being winners.” Still, Schmitz acknowledges that two in five Catholics are considering Trump because of his appeal to Catholics “left behind by progress.”
