White evangelicals in the U.S. remain strongly supportive of the Republican Party, according to a Pew Research Center report published June 2.
More than three-quarters (78%) of white evangelicals identify as Republican / lean Republican, compared to only 17% who identify as Democrat / lean Democrat.
No other religious grouping surveyed by Pew had more than 60% of respondents identify as Republican.
By contrast, 84% of black Protestants identify as Democrat / lean Democrat, while only 10% identify as Republican / lean Republican.
No other religious grouping surveyed had more than 70% identify as Democrat.
Black Protestant identification with the Democratic Party is in line with overall black support, with 83% of all black voters in the U.S. saying they are Democrats or lean Democrat.
By contrast, white evangelical support of the Republican Party is significantly higher than overall political affiliation of white voters, with 53% saying they are Republicans or lean Republican.
The eight religious groups surveyed by Pew were evenly split in party affiliation.
Majorities in four groups identify as Republican (white evangelical Protestant, white nonevangelical Protestant, white Catholic and Mormon) and majorities in four groups identify as Democrats (black Protestant, Hispanic Catholic, Jewish and unaffiliated).
“Voters who attend religious services more frequently are generally more likely than those who attend less often to identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. This gap is especially pronounced among Jewish voters,” the report said. “This same pattern is seen among several other religious groups, including white evangelicals, though it is not as pronounced as among Jewish voters.”
Christian support of the Republican Party has remained high over the past decade, while it has declined significantly in the Democratic Party.
Since 2008, Christian voters who identify as Republican have declined from 87% (77% white Christians and 10% nonwhite Christians) to 80% (66% white; 14% nonwhite).
Christians who identify as Democrat dropped from 73% (45% white Christians and 28% nonwhite Christians) to 51% (26% white; 25% nonwhite) from 2008 to 2019.
Over the same period, the percent of the religiously unaffiliated who identify as Republican has risen only six points to 15%, while the unaffiliated who identify as Democrat increased 20 points to 38%.
The full report is available here. The data tables are available here.
