Religion and the 2020 Presidential Election: The Enduring Divide
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David E. Campbell
David E. Campbell is the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. He has written widely on the subject of religion and politics, including
Secular Surge (co-authored with Geoffrey C, Layman and John C. Green),American Grace (co-authored with Robert D. Putnam), andSeeking the Promised Land (co-authored with J. Quin Monson and John C. Green).James R. G. Kirk is a first-year Ph.D. student in political science and Notebaert Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests include political parties, elections, public opinion, and religion and politics.
Geoffrey C. Layman is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of two books on religion and politics in the U.S.:
The Great Divide andSecular Surge (co-authored with David E. Campbell and John C. Green). He has published numerous journal articles on party politics, public opinion, electoral behavior, and religion and politics. He currently is co-editor of the journalPolitical Behavior .
Abstract
Religion played a prominent role in the 2020 presidential campaign. Donald Trump overtly courted white evangelical Protestants and Catholics, while Joe Biden emphasized his Catholicism far more than any Catholic candidate in American history. Did religion play as important a role in electoral behavior in 2020? If so, how and why did religion affect Americans’ voting decisions? We take up those questions by analyzing the religious vote in 2020 and the reasons why particular religious and non-religious groups voted as they did. We find that the religious divisions in the 2020 electorate were quite deep, but they were mostly unchanged from those present in 2016. Moreover, some electoral differences between religious groups are based in factors such as racial resentment, support for limited government, and anti-immigration attitudes that are not typically associated with religion. However, a key explanation for religious voting in 2020 was an old standby: the abortion issue. The religion gap in American electoral politics represents an enduring divide. The only changes were at the margins—but where elections are close, margins matter.
About the authors
David E. Campbell is the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. He has written widely on the subject of religion and politics, including Secular Surge (co-authored with Geoffrey C, Layman and John C. Green), American Grace (co-authored with Robert D. Putnam), and Seeking the Promised Land (co-authored with J. Quin Monson and John C. Green).
James R. G. Kirk is a first-year Ph.D. student in political science and Notebaert Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests include political parties, elections, public opinion, and religion and politics.
Geoffrey C. Layman is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of two books on religion and politics in the U.S.: The Great Divide and Secular Surge (co-authored with David E. Campbell and John C. Green). He has published numerous journal articles on party politics, public opinion, electoral behavior, and religion and politics. He currently is co-editor of the journal Political Behavior.
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Supplementary Material
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/for-2020-2104).
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The 2020 Election
- Misreporting: Social Scientists, Political Commentators, and the Politics of Presidential Selection
- Spending Fast and Furious: Political Advertising in 2020
- Why Trump Became a ‘Confederate’ President
- Háblame de tí: Latino mobilization, group dynamics and issue prioritization in the 2020 Election
- Marching to the Ballot Box: Sex and Voting in the 2020 Election Cycle
- Religion and the 2020 Presidential Election: The Enduring Divide
- The Rural-Urban Continuum of Polarization: Understanding the Geography of the 2018 Midterms
- You’re Fired! Donald Trump and the 2020 Congressional Elections
- Book Review
- Boris Heersink and Jeffrey A. Jenkins: Republican Party Politics and The American South 1865–1968
- Review
- Learning From Loss: The Democrats 2016–2020
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The 2020 Election
- Misreporting: Social Scientists, Political Commentators, and the Politics of Presidential Selection
- Spending Fast and Furious: Political Advertising in 2020
- Why Trump Became a ‘Confederate’ President
- Háblame de tí: Latino mobilization, group dynamics and issue prioritization in the 2020 Election
- Marching to the Ballot Box: Sex and Voting in the 2020 Election Cycle
- Religion and the 2020 Presidential Election: The Enduring Divide
- The Rural-Urban Continuum of Polarization: Understanding the Geography of the 2018 Midterms
- You’re Fired! Donald Trump and the 2020 Congressional Elections
- Book Review
- Boris Heersink and Jeffrey A. Jenkins: Republican Party Politics and The American South 1865–1968
- Review
- Learning From Loss: The Democrats 2016–2020
