American pastors are reportedly experiencing the same electoral pressures as their congregants and the general public, with many faith leaders reluctant to reveal who they plan to vote for in November.
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This issue of election silence is much more pronounced among preachers in 2024, it seems, with 23% of pastors refusing to answer for whom they’ll cast a ballot, according to Lifeway Research.
For context, just 4% expressed the same reluctance in 2020, and just 3% fell into that bucket during the 2016 cycle. The shift in willingness to openly discuss these matters is notable.
According to Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, the reticence “shows how sensitive or divisive politics has become in some churches.”
Despite many declining to share, among those who plan to vote and were forthcoming, 50% said they plan to select former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, and 24% stated Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris as their preference.
An additional 23% are undecided, according to the data.
Political affiliation is also of note among Protestant pastors, as 50% are either registered Republicans or are part of that movement, 18% are Democrats, and 25% classify themselves as Independent.
Differences persist among more specific Christian cohorts as well. Among evangelical pastors, 61% plan to vote for Trump, with 50% of mainline Protestant pastors planning to pull the lever for Harris.
Overall, the general patterns are in line with what’s been observed in recent elections.
“The 2024 voting preferences are similar to those during the leadup to the 2020 election, when 53% of U.S. Protestant pastors said they planned to vote for Trump, 21% for Joe Biden and 22% were undecided,” Lifeway Research reported. “In 2016, 40% of pastors were still undecided in September, while 32% supported Trump and 19% planned to vote for Hillary Clinton.”
What’s perhaps most interesting about pastoral election preferences are the main issues preachers cite as driving their decision for whom they’ll vote. Consider that 96% of those choosing Trump said the “ability to protect religious freedom” is an important issue to their voting decision.
Among those pastors who plan to choose Harris, 96% said the quest to find a candidate with personal character is motivating their vote. Read the full results here.
The data in the Lifeway Research survey was collected Aug. 8-Sept. 3, 2024, among 1,003 Protestant pastors, with a sampling error that doesn’t exceed plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
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