It was a fitting coda to an election in which Trump once again won the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters. That level of support — among a group that represented about 20% of the total electorate — repeats similarly staggering evangelical support that Trump received in 2020.
Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas, one of Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporters since the 2016 campaign, called the election a “great victory.”
“Yes, there were some faith issues important to evangelicals, but evangelicals are Americans, too,” Jeffress said. “They care about immigration, they care about the economy.”
Some Trump critics fear he will implement a Christian nationalist agenda they see as giving Christians a privileged position in the country and flouting the separation of church and state.
Jeffress dismissed concerns of those who predict a Christian nationalist administration.
“People who are not Christians are unduly worried he’s going to institute some kind of oppressive theocracy. He has no interest in doing that,” Jeffress said, noting that Trump has shown no interest in banning same-sex marriage or imposing an absolute abortion ban.
The Republican platform pledged to defend Christians as well as Jews facing persecution. While it included a general pledge to protect the worship of all faith groups, those were the only two singled out by name. The platform also championed the right to “pray and read the Bible in school.”
Trump is pledging to support other evangelical priorities, such as support for Israel and a pushback on transgender rights, saying, “God created two genders, male and female.”
It wasn’t just white, non-Hispanic evangelicals supporting Trump. So did about just over half of Latino evangelicals and about 6 in 10 white Catholics, according to AP VoteCast. Overall, about 6 in 10 Mormons also backed the former president.
Pastor Abraham Rivera of La Puerta Life Center in North Miami, Florida, attributed Trump’s popularity among all Latinos, and evangelicals in particular, to their conservative values regarding morality and family.
“The gender identity issue that the left pushes a lot, I think it puts off a lot of Latino evangelicals,” Rivera said. Members of his congregation voiced some concerns about Trump’s “personality or things he says,” but not his policies, Rivera said.
He expects the frequent contacts that Latino evangelical leaders had with Trump’s first administration to continue, giving them a voice. In contrast, he felt doors “were shut closed” in the Biden White House, which seemed to disregard the values of many conservatives.
But Rivera added: “The idea that some evil Christian right is going to take over everything is just crazy.”
