Donald Trump Support From Evangelical Pastors Slips: Poll

Former President Donald Trump has lost some support from evangelical pastors, according to a new poll.
Evangelical Christians are a key voter bloc for Republicans, whose support for culturally right-wing policies like opposition to legal abortion and LGBTQ+ rights have long drawn socially conservative, highly religious voters. High turnout among white evangelical voters would be key to a Trump victory in November, but his relationship with the bloc has faced some tension, as his positions on some of these social issues have at times been less rigid than those of other conservatives.
A new poll from Lifeway Research revealed how his support among Christian pastors has changed since 2020.
While an overwhelming majority of evangelical pastors still say they are backing Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, in November, the survey revealed that his support among this group has dropped compared to four years earlier.
Sixty-one percent of evangelical pastors who responded to the poll said they plan to vote for Trump, compared to 68 percent in a poll conducted in September 2020.
The new survey was conducted among 1,003 Protestant pastors from August 8 to September 3. The earlier polling of 1,000 Protestant pastors was held from September 2 to October 1, 2020. In 2020, the poll found Trump with a 32-point lead over President Joe Biden (53 percent to 21 percent) while the current poll shows the former president with a 26-point lead over Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris (50 percent to 24 percent).
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for comment via email on Tuesday.
Although Trump is still expected to carry a majority of Protestant voters, small changes in margins could pack more punch in key swing states that could be decided by only a few thousand votes in November. Polls suggest Harris and Trump are locked in a tossup race, though Harris has seen her poll numbers improve since the two candidates debated last week in Philadelphia.
White evangelical voters backed Trump by 52 points in 2020, according to a CNN exit poll (76 percent to 24 percent). Protestants backed Trump by 21 points (60 percent to 39 percent), while Catholics backed Biden by 5 points (52 percent to 47 percent).
This month, Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler, a long-standing figure in conservative Christian politics, warned that Trump’s issues on abortion and in vitro fertilization (IVF) could weaken his support among evangelicals.
“Trump is basically daring the pro-life movement to turn on him,” Mohler said on The New York Times podcast.
While Trump has maintained he opposes abortion rights, he has voiced support for IVF and has stressed the need for exemptions for rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger, at times sparking some backlash from opponents of abortion.
Trump has offered mixed commentary about whether he supports a ballot measure seeking to expand abortion access in his home state of Florida. Last month, he suggested Florida’s abortion limits are too strict, indicating that he would vote “that we need more than six weeks.” The comments were denounced by anti-abortion activists, and he has since said he will vote to uphold the abortion ban.
Taking a hard line on abortion may be crucial to maintaining his support among conservative evangelical voters, but is less popular among the wider electorate, as a majority of voters have disapproved of wide-reaching abortion bans, even if they support some limits on the procedure. Polls show the issue has become a weakness for Republicans.