Catholics Turn on the Democrats

A once-dependable pillar constituency shuns the radicalized party…

With the death of Pope Francis, the attention of the world naturally turns toward the Church, and mostly toward Rome. But this focus on Catholicism should also prod an examination of the massive Catholic shift away from Democrats across America.

Specifically, Catholics now overwhelmingly disapprove of the Democratic Party by a massive 25% margin, with only 31% approval and 56% disapproval. Admittedly, political parties are generally not popular with voters. But for context, the Republican Party is only -2% underwater among Catholics, with 44% approval and 46% disapproval. So, by comparison, the Democrats face an absolute crisis collapse among Catholics in America.

These numbers were revealed by a survey for my League of American Workers advocacy group, compiled by TIPP Insights polling, which conducted a nationwide survey of over 1,500 voters April 7-9.

ompared to most of U.S. history, this new partisan gap among Catholics is quite astounding. For many decades, Catholics formed an absolute foundational base of the Democrats, from northern city political machines to Al Smith to John F. Kennedy. But the Democrats of today would find no place for a JFK or a Tip O’Neill. Instead, it has devolved into a party of open borders, globalist trade policies, constant warfighting abroad, and cultural Marxism that elevates the most fringe aspects of human perversion into some sort of faux noble cause.

As a consequence, Catholics flee the party in droves. In fact, Catholics provided the key determinative difference in Donald Trump’s win last November. After all, some of the most pivotal swing states in America boast huge Catholic populations, especially the “northern three” battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. But even outside of swing states, Trump rolled up an incredible +11% margin among Catholics nationwide, a giant improvement over his tie among Catholics in 2020. Trump does not win the popular vote without his dominant performance among Catholics.

In this Catholic landslide, the rank-and-file voters who fill church pews on Sunday proved their fundamental disagreement with many prominent church hierarchical voices on political matters in the United States, especially regarding immigration. Instead, Catholics rallied fervently to President Trump and his Catholic running mate, J.D. Vance, who insisted on border security. They delivered a mandate to deport millions of illegal aliens who trespassed into our country, many with the overt permission of the supposedly devoutly Catholic Joe Biden.

Now that Trump and Vance have indeed brought stability and control to the border region of America, Catholics remain firm believers in sovereignty and law and order. This same poll revealed widespread overall support for the Trump/Vance approach on immigration. For example, on mass deportations, all Americans support the policy by a +15% margin, 55-40%. Among Catholic Americans, the margin is even higher, with a +21% margin, 59-38%. When asked about illegal migrants with a criminal record, support for deportation soars higher. Catholics support those deportations by a stunning 81-15%.

The fallout for the Democrats is tectonic. Historically, Catholics decide national elections. They have been the key swing vote for decades. For over half a century, the Catholic vote went to every presidential winner except once. The lone exception was the super-close 2000 race between Al Gore and eventual winner George W. Bush.

So, looking at history, it is hard to exaggerate the importance of this massive realignment. The Democratic Party of yesteryear was so closely identified with Catholicism that anti-Democrat political messaging often carried explicitly bigoted anti-Catholic themes!

But now, Catholics reject the radicalism of the 2020s Democrats. Instead, millions of us now find an invigorating political home in the patriotic populism of the America First movement.

Steve Cortes is president of the League of American Workers, and senior political advisor to Catholic Vote.

He is a former senior advisor to President Trump and JD Vance, plus a former commentator for Fox News and CNN.

This article was published by American Greatness

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/23/catholics-turn-on-the-democrats/