President Joe Biden, a self-described Catholic, is polling worse with voters from his church than he did four years ago, according to polling by the Pew Research Center.
If the election were held today, 55% of Catholic voters say they would vote for former President Donald Trump, or lean toward voting for him, with just 43% saying they would throw their support behind Biden, a 12-point gap, according to Pew. This represents a sizable shift from 2020, where a similar poll conducted by Pew found that Catholics were virtually split between the two candidates, with 50% saying they’d support Trump and 49% reporting that they would vote for Biden.
Biden has frequently leaned on his Catholic faith while in office though has taken policy stances that are in tension with the Church’s teachings. The president has, for instance, expressed support for lax abortion laws and child sex changes, both of which the Vatican frowns upon.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, called Biden a “cafeteria Catholic” in March, explaining that the president “picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts.” Gregory specifically highlighted Biden’s approach to “life issues.”
The shift toward Trump was most pronounced among Hispanic Catholics, according to Pew’s polling. Biden only leads Hispanic Catholics by two points in Pew’s most recent poll, within the margin of error, a significant drop off from the 32-point lead he enjoyed in Pew’s 2020 poll.
Hispanic voters on the whole have been moving toward the Republican Party, a trend that worries some liberals. The Biden campaign, for instance, is focusing on courting Latinos, and George Soros, an ally of the Democratic Party, has given tens of millions of dollars to left-of-center Latino advocacy groups.
Black protestants and the religiously unaffiliated are the only groups where Biden holds a significant lead, Pew’s poll found. Religiosity was correlated with conservatism, with Catholics who attend church more often also being more likely to back Trump, according to Pew.
Pew’s poll surveyed 1,419 Catholics between April 8 and April 14, with its final findings having a margin of error of 3.7 points.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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