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Mary Eberstadt: Kamala Harris and Trump-Vance Catholics Vote Breakdown

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League said Catholics resoundingly rejected Harris because of her "politics of extremism." Really?

The Miami Herald said "U.S. Catholics favored Trump over Harris by a 18-point margin — the biggest gap in the past two decades, according to multiple exit polls." “As Democrats and others assess the fallout from last week’s red bombshell, they’re looking at surprises in the exit polls. Here’s one that shouldn’t be missed: The nation’s Catholic voters split 56 to 41 in favor of Donald Trump.” So wrote Mary Eberstadt in First Things in an article entitled Why Catholics Voted for Trump.

Bill Donohue, president of the religious civil rights group Catholic League, told Fox News that Catholics resoundingly rejected Harris because of what he called a "clear animus against Catholics."

"She [Harris] was rejected primarily because she is associated with the politics of extremism, and that is something the American people will never countenance," Donohue said.

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"In one way, that endorsement [by Catholics voting Trump] might seem to require explanation," wrote Eberstadt. "After all, no one’s personal failings have been more exposed to global sunlight than Trump’s; and Catholics as a whole, unlike many evangelical Protestants, weren’t ground-floor MAGA fans. Even so, the fact that a Catholic majority in 2024 signed on to Trump-Vance makes inescapable sense, for at least three reasons."

Eberstadt is a senior research fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute. Several of the points Eberstadt raised in First Things are items spotlighted here on the Patch during the campaign. One was the apparent insults to Christians in general, and sometimes Catholics more specifically.

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Eberstadt said: "key Democratic party policies have been locked in combat with key Catholic moral teachings for a long time now—ever since yesterday’s “safe, legal, and rare” abortions became “always, forever, and lots.” Not only is this grim consensus longstanding. It is also enforced. “Pro-life Democrat,” once a political identity, is now an oxymoron. Nor is abortion the only issue forcing many believers into a choice between faith and party. From Obama’s disparaging of “guns and religion,” to Hillary’s “basket of deplorables,” to the baiting of Catholic nominees before Congress for being Catholic (see Dianne Feinstein, Kamala Harris), the party’s leaders have proved time and again that the Democrats have a Catholic problem. As of last week, a majority of voting Catholics seem finally to have noticed."

That was the first of "at least three reasons" why Eberstadt's research led her to conclude that as curious as it may seem at first, given years of Catholics voting for Democrats, why that pivot in the 2024 election makes sense. She said: "After all, no one’s personal failings have been more exposed to global sunlight than Trump’s; and Catholics as a whole, unlike many evangelical Protestants, weren’t ground-floor MAGA fans. Even so, the fact that a Catholic majority in 2024 signed on to Trump-Vance makes inescapable sense..."

"The record of the Biden-Harris administration, for its part, pushed some voters rightward on its own. In 2020, President Joe Biden won the Catholic vote by 5 percent. Biden and Harris then went on to back policies that antagonized many of those same voters," Eberstadt stated.

"From support for initiatives like the Equality Act, which would have gutted religious freedom, to calling transgenderism “the civil rights issue of our time,” the second Catholic president seemed scripted by the decidedly un-Catholic Human Rights Campaign."

"In another eyepopper, the emboldened Biden-Harris Department of Justice alerted the FBI to a new “threat”: tradition-minded Catholics. The resulting FBI memorandum even suggested that the agency should infiltrate churches. Throughout these and other progressive indulgences, party-wide animosity toward the Dobbs decision and its Court architects, some of them Catholic, raged on."

Pope Francis has died.

https://patch.com/florida/lake...

We are now approaching 100 days into the Trump-Vance Adminstration. Vance was perhaps the last high ranking public official for a nation to see Pope Francis. Vance is a convert to Catholicism. Some see Vance as the future of the MAGA and America First movement.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert, attends the Good Friday service at the Vatican with his family

Video: Vatican Media pic.twitter.com/vUhqWEFqaS

— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) April" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/Sachinetti... 18, 2025

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert, attends the Good Friday service at the Vatican with his family

Video: Vatican Media pic.twitter.com/vUhqWEFqaS
— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) April" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/Sachinetti... 18, 2025

BREAKING: MAGA supporters are calling for a 2028 Vance/Trump ticket, where Vance could resign, making Trump president.

However, the 12th and 22nd Amendments pose constitutional challenges. pic.twitter.com/yEEsOm6wg5
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) March" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/LeadingRep... 31, 2025

Speaking of Catholic, several in Trump's cabinet and leadership/advisory team are Catholics. It was reflected in his Holy Week message. Trump's wife Melania is Catholic.

https://patch.com/florida/lake...

Whatever develops in the days ahead, expect this writer for the "Reality Check" series for this Patch to keep you informed. Thanks for checking in. Other topics, related and not, will follow.

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L. A. “Tony” Kovach is a publisher who has earned multiple awards in history. He and his family live in a manufactured home on private property in Winter Haven, FL. He is the co-founder of Manufactured Home Living News.com (MHLivingNews.com) and Manufactured Home Pro News.com (MHProNews.com), trade publications serving segments of the manufactured home industry. Having worked in several segments of the manufactured home industry for over 3 decades, Kovach is a widely acknowledged and often praised expert on manufactured housing. ###

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Mary Eberstadt: Kamala Harris and Trump-Vance Catholics Vote Breakdown

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League said Catholics resoundingly rejected Harris because of her "politics of extremism." Really?

L. A. "Tony" Kovach, Neighbor

Find out what's happening in Lakelandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Find out what's happening in Lakelandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

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