Evangelical supporters of Donald Trump praying at a rally in Florida in this undated photo. | (Photo: Reuters/Carlo Allegri)
Bill Werts grew up in rural north central Pennsylvania and always identified as an evangelical conservative. He listened to conservative radio talk shows, emulated Christian conservative politicians like Mike Pence and even participated in the March for Life in Washington, D.C. five times.
After supporting staunch conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican primary, the 46-year-old held reservations about voting for President Donald Trump in that year’s general election considering his background, past indiscretions and what he considered to be a “racist” base the thrice-married real estate mogul tried to win over.
People pray together during the Evangelicals for Trump campaign event held at the King Jesus International Ministry as they await the arrival of President Donald Trump on January 03, 2020 in Miami, Florida. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Joe Biden fared worse in getting white evangelical Christian voter support than the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, according to an Election Day poll sponsored by a conservative Christian grassroots organization.
The Faith & Freedom Coalition analyzed trends among evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics in the 2020 election and presented the findings on Wednesday.
According to an election survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for FFC, 81% of self-identified white evangelicals voted for President Donald Trump, while 14% voted for Biden.
Joel Perez prays during the Evangelicals for Trump campaign event held at the King Jesus International Ministry as they await the arrival of President Donald Trump on January 03, 2020 in Miami, Florida. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Preliminary 2020 election exit polls released Wednesday suggest that President Donald Trump lost about 4 percentage points in white evangelical support compared to the 2016 election, but gained support in key demographics such as Catholics, Protestants, blacks and Latinos.
Early exit polling data conducted for The Washington Post and other media outlets indicates that Trump, the Republican incumbent, garnered 76% of the white evangelical vote, while former Vice President and Democratic nominee Joe Biden picked up 23% of the white evangelical vote.
A prominent author is suggesting that questions about President Donald Trump’s character and Twitter habits caused a small but not insignificant slice of evangelicals not to vote for him in 2020, a collective decision that may end up denying him a second term.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON The Rev. and Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock shares more than a party with President-elect Joe Biden: Both Democrats made faith a central part of their political identity on the campaign trail and their victories are emboldening religious liberals.
Warnock, who leads the Atlanta church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, will become Georgia’s first African American senator after a hard-fought runoff that saw GOP opponent Kelly Loeffler cite his sermons in attack ads that portrayed him as radical.
His self-identification as a ” pro-choice pastor “ angered conservatives, but Warnock’s win in a state that Biden turned blue for the first time since 1992 has religious progressives hopeful that Democrats will keep broadening their outreach to voters of faith.