Catholic Voters Down On Biden Ahead Of Midterms, Most Favor Abortion Rights With Limits
Four months before the midterm elections, Catholic voters are giving President Joe Biden a thumbs down, are evenly split when it comes for their support of Democrats and Republicans and have mixed views when it comes to abortion rights, a new poll released Thursday revealed.
The survey, commissioned by EWTN and conducted by RealClear Opinion Research, also found that more Catholics are fleeing the Democratic Party as a result of the poor economy and culture war issues.
Regarding Biden’s approval rating, only 45% of likely Catholic voters said they hold a favorable opinion of the president, compared to 53% who say they have an unfavorable opinion of him.
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Biden, the first Catholic to be elected president since John F. Kennedy in 1960, received 52% of the Catholic vote in 2020.
The poll comes before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when Republicans are poised to regain control of both the House and Senate, according to an average of polls.
The survey, taken between June 13-23, was conducted before the Supreme Court decided to roll back the federal right to abortion. The poll surveyed 1,757 likely Catholics voters on issues regarding faith, politics and public policy.
On the abortion issue, the poll found that most Catholics (47% to 42%) favored upholding Roe v. Wade, but a majority (82%) supported either ending the practice outright or imposing various regulations to limit it, something forbidden under Roe.
The Catholic Church has been one of the most vocal institutions against abortion. Catholic teaching is that life begins at conception.
The poll, meanwhile, found that 42% of Catholic voters polled identify as Democrat — a decrease from 45% from the 2020 presidential election. At the same time, the percentage of Catholics who identify as Republican increased from 34% to 38%, and 20% identified as Independent.
Below are a few highlights from the poll’s findings:
— There is a big difference between the way White and non-White voters view Biden. His approval rating is 36% among White Catholics but 59% among Hispanic Catholics and 72% among Black Catholics.
— Mass attendance as a predictor of how Catholics are likely to vote found little difference between those who attend weekly, monthly or less than annually in their view of the president. Biden’s approval rating is at 43% among Catholics who attend Mass weekly versus 46% for both of the other categories.
— When it comes to record inflation, 89% of Catholics said they have had their finances impacted “a great deal or to some degree.” Catholic voters are closely split on placing blame: 36% say Biden and his policies and 33% say the war in Ukraine and the global slowdown.
— On many issues, the Catholic electorate seems to have shifted to the political right. They believe that parents of schoolchildren should have more information about what their children are taught in school (90%), are more likely to support a candidate who promotes religious freedom (82%) and want increased border security (74%).
— Catholics worry about attacks on churches (84%) and pro-life clinics (81%), the tearing down statues of famous Catholics (75%) and overall anti-Christian sentiment in the country (72%).
These issue will certainly to be highlighted in the coming weeks as campaigns heat up across the nation.
CatholicVote, a conservative group, released an ad earlier this week attacking Iowa Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne for saying nothing about attacks on churches in recent months.
In an interview with Fox News, CatholicVote President Brian Burch said, "That's one area we hope to highlight, is that their silence in the face of rampant violence nationwide signals something deeper, and far more worrisome, about the place of Catholic candidates inside the Democratic Party.”
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.