Data Reveals Christian Influence in the 2024 Presidential Race
- Milton Quintanilla Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Nov 21, 2024
According to a new report, self-identified Christians made a difference in the outcome of the 2024 election when they voted for President-elect Donald Trump in an overwhelming fashion. The report, conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, found that self-identified Christians helped Trump win the election against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, The Christian Post reports.
“Among self-identified Christians, President Trump won a 56 percent share of their vote. And because Christians represented 72 percent of the voters who turned out, their support for the re-elected Republican made the difference in the race,” the report stated.
“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 a more than five-to-two margin—delivering the decisive Nov. 5 victory to President Trump.”
SAGE Cons, also known as Spiritually Active Governance Engaged Conservative Christians, had a 99 percent turnout this election, which was the highest among voters in religious subgroups. SAGE Cons are described as “consistent participation and belief in core Christian principles and religious endeavors, plus above-average political attentiveness and participation, possessing conservative political ideology, and a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.”
There was also an increase in the turnout rate amongst religious groups in this year’s election when compared to 2020 including Catholics (70 percent from 67 percent); people who possess a biblical worldview (67 percent from 64 percent).
Although the turnout rate remained unchanged for attendees of Pentecostal churches (62 percent) in both 2020 and 2024, there was a decline seen among Christians who attend mainline Protestant churches (66 percent to 65 percent), Evangelical churches (65 percent to 59 percent), and Protestant (62 percent to 59 percent).
Overall, every subgroup of Christian voters voted for Trump in the 2024 election, receiving overwhelming support from SAGE Cons (90 percent), Integrated Disciples (75 percent), and Pentecostal church attendees (74 percent). The president-elect also received a significant amount of support from Evangelical church attenders (64 percent), theologically-defined born-again Christians (64 percent), and Protestants (60 percent).
George Barna, director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, explained why Trump received overwhelming support from Christians.
Trump “did a better job than Kamala Harris of representing hallowed Christian characteristics such as the importance and support of family, the rule of law, limited government authority, financial responsibility, and the like,” Barna said in a statement.
“In contrast, Vice President Harris’ doubling down on abortion on-demand, open borders, transgenderism, and central tenets of socialistic governance clashed with the core values of the nation’s dominant spiritual perspectives,” he noted.
“Millions of President Trump’s votes came from people who would not vote for him as the nation’s pastor or as a behavioral model for their children, but who perceived he would protect their traditional, cherished values and lifestyle preferences while Harris was more likely to limit or ban such ways of life.”
The report, conducted three days after the Nov. 5 election, is based on “extensive interviews with a national sample of 2,000 voting-age adults” as well as had a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
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