In a survey taken by Christian Democrats of America of over 1,200 self-identified Christian voters, 26% of Republicans and 78% of Independents polled say Joe Biden and Kamala Harris better reflects their values as Christians than Donald Trump and Mike Pence. The poll was conducted online. If results are reflective of the overall Christian voting population, those surveyed who self-identified as Evangelicals have swung away from Trump in the past 4 years.
"The good news in our poll is that 13.5% of respondents identified as Evangelical and 80% as White, which is the demographic we have been working to reach in the last few years," Christina Forrester, CDA Founder and Director says. "We have seen a huge uptick of at least 30k new supporters in groups like Christians Against Trump Facebook group that are Evangelical. This is because many Christians, including some Republicans, are finally seeing they simply cannot justify supporting whose actions are such an antithesis to their faith teachings."
It remains to be seen if this survey is an indicator of a change in the Evangelical or white Christian vote. Certainly the majority of the time, when the media and political pundits refer to the "faith voter," the "Christian vote" or "Evangelicals," they are almost always talking about specific segments of the Christian world – the Religious Right conservative Christians and "pro-life" Evangelicals. The very vocal support for the GOP from these segments of the Christian population has "branded" the Christian voter as a conservative voter, however, Christian Democrats and Liberals are also a large and influential voting bloc with an important voice. There are many reasons Christian voters have chosen to engage as Democrats when asking important values-based questions such as:
Which party is working for real solutions and viewing the immigrant with compassion, and which party has separated children from their parents at the border and adopted exclusionary and even cruel policies towards immigrants?
Which party is promoting policies to help the poor, wants to increase food stamps, housing and programs for those who are vulnerable from the homeless to the elderly to the single parent, and which party wants to block funding for all these things yet increase spending on war, military, and wealthy tax breaks?
Which party speaks with reform and justice in mind for long-standing racial inequity and against homophobic and xenophobic laws, and which party is still pushing for an even harsher criminal justice system with little to no reparations or criminal justice reforms in terms of mercy and protections for all of God's creation and wishes to expand the use of religion to include measures of lawful exclusion of certain American citizens?
On these, and so many other issues, the choice for many faith voters is obvious. The Democratic Party is not perfect, but it is fighting for values we can solidly back up as Christians, especially when the GOP is offering the values of Donald Trump.