A shrinking demographic of white evangelical Christians elevated Donald Trump to power even as a growing demographic of atheists and the nonreligious rejected his Christian nationalist agenda.
White evangelical Christians were key to Trump’s victory, just as they were in 2016, with the religiously unaffiliated overwhelmingly supporting Kamala Harris. According to exit polling from NBC News, 82 percent of white evangelicals, who made up only 22 percent of the electorate, voted for Trump. Four years ago, white evangelicals represented 28 percent of voters, showing that this voting bloc is on the downswing. Most of the 78 percent of the public who aren’t white evangelicals voted for Kamala Harris.
The “Nones” (religiously unaffiliated), representing 24 percent of voters, broke for Harris over Trump 71 percent to 26 percent. While atheists and the religiously unaffiliated are an influential, growing demographic, their numbers and turnout ultimately fell short of swinging the election outcome away from Trump and his Christian nationalist agenda. In 2020, 65 percent of nonreligious voters voted for Joe Biden over Trump and represented just 22 percent of voters.
One surprise this year was the movement of Latino Catholics and Catholics in general toward Trump, in part possibly due to the rise of Catholic Christian nationalism. In 2020, the Catholic electorate was evenly split, with 50 percent backing Trump and 49 percent favoring Biden, a faithful Catholic. This year, according to AP’s VoteCast, a larger percentage of Catholics, 54 percent, supported Trump, while 44 percent backed Harris.
According to Fox exit polling, Trump won Catholics in North Carolina by 17 points, Wisconsin by 16 points and Pennsylvania by 14 points. This analysis put the None vote as the most-anti-Trump, with 69 percent going for Harris. The NBC News exit poll showed Jews at 78 percent for Harris as the largest anti-Trump bloc, compared to 71 percent of unaffiliated. However, nearly three in 10 adults today identify as having no religious affiliation, making the Nones a far more significant voting bloc compared to adult Jews at about 2.4 percent.
The Fox poll also found that those who never attend religious service favored Harris 61-36 while those who attend once a week or more favored Trump 64-34. Trump also led with all others who attend religious services.
Harris received 46 percent of the vote in heavily Muslim Hamtramck, Mich., a significant decrease from Biden’s 85 percent four years ago due to a complex variety of domestic and foreign-policy reasons. In comparison, Trump got almost 43 percent, according to results provided to the Free Press by City Clerk Rana Faraj.
On a positive note, in 2025, more than 75 humanist and atheist elected officials at the federal and state levels will serve in 33 states.
“These exit polls show what FFRF has been saying for nearly two decades — that nonreligious Americans, the largest single U.S. segment by religious identification, should be positioned to cancel out the white Christian evangelical/nationalist vote in favor of secular values,” points out Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. “Christian adherence has dropped precipitately, which is why the Christian nationalist movement is fighting so desperately to take over.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 40,000 members and several chapters across the country. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
