What percentage of Trump voters identify as Christian?
Executive summary
Pew Research Center’s post‑2024 analysis reports that roughly 79% of Trump voters identified as Christian, while about 52% of Harris voters did [1]. Exit polls and specialized surveys give related but different snapshots—network exit polling and PRRI/Edison figures emphasize the share of Christian subgroups who voted for Trump rather than the share of Trump’s coalition that is Christian [2] [3].
1. What the headline numbers mean: “79% identified as Christian”
Pew’s demographic profile says “roughly eight‑in‑ten Trump voters (79%) identified as Christian,” which answers the user’s literal question about share of Trump voters who self‑identify as Christian [1]. That figure comes from Pew’s detailed 2024 voter breakdown and compares Trump and Harris coalitions on religion, not theological belief or attendance [1].
2. Exit polls measure something different: Christian voters’ choices
Exit polls and faith‑group analyses instead often report the share of Christians who voted for Trump—for example, network exit polling cited by Baptist News and Christian Chronicle shows about 63% of “Protestant or other Christian” voters and 58% of Catholic voters went for Trump in 2024 [2] [4]. PRRI and Edison exit polling highlight that a large share of white Christians voted for Trump (72% of white Christians in Edison exit polls, per PRRI)—these are group‑vote shares, not the religious composition of Trump’s voters [3].
3. Why different sources report different numbers
Pew’s 79% is the composition of Trump’s voters by religion (what portion of his voters are Christian) [1]. Exit polls and PRRI often report the inverse—what proportion of Christians supported Trump (e.g., 63% of Protestant/other Christians) or subgroup results like white evangelical support levels [2] [3]. Confusion arises when these two directions are conflated: “share of Trump voters who are Christian” versus “share of Christians who voted for Trump” are distinct statistics [1] [2] [3].
4. Subgroups matter: evangelicals, white Christians, racial differences
Multiple sources show Christian subgroups differ sharply. White evangelicals backed Trump at very high rates—around eight‑in‑ten in AP and other surveys—while Black Protestants and many non‑Christian groups largely supported Harris [5] [1]. PRRI notes white Christians constituted a big part of the Republican coalition and that white Christian support for Trump was strong [3]. These subgroup patterns affect both the composition of Trump’s voters and the vote breakdown among Christians themselves [3] [5].
5. Context and caveats: timing, question wording, and measurement
Survey results vary by timing (post‑election, exit poll, later surveys), sample, and question wording—Pew’s general identification question differs from exit polls that classify voters by religion categories like “Protestant or other Christian.” Academic analyses caution that state‑level and cultural contexts also influence how religious identity maps onto voting behavior [6]. Available sources do not mention every possible methodological detail for each poll; where sources disagree or omit specifics, reporting reflects that limitation [6] [1] [2].
6. Competing perspectives and potential agendas in reporting
Religiously affiliated outlets (Christian Chronicle, Baptist News) emphasize how Christian voters split and often highlight large majorities of Christian support for Trump in subgroup terms, which can serve narrative purposes for religious readers [2] [4]. Research centers like Pew and PRRI present broader demographic snapshots aimed at comparative analysis; academic pieces (e.g., on Christian nationalism) interpret faith‑politics links through theoretical frameworks that probe deeper cultural causes [1] [3] [6]. Readers should note each source’s institutional perspective when weighing claims.
7. Bottom line and how to read these figures
If your question is “what percentage of Trump voters identify as Christian?” use Pew’s 79% figure as the most direct reported answer [1]. If you instead meant “what share of Christians voted for Trump?” look to exit polls and PRRI, which report roughly 56–63% among all self‑identified Christians or higher shares among white Christians and evangelicals [2] [7] [3]. Both perspectives are true but answer different questions; conflating them causes much of the public confusion [1] [2].
If you want, I can extract the exact wording and tables from Pew’s report or compile a side‑by‑side comparison table of Pew, PRRI, Edison/exit polls and network exit polling so you can see the different denominators and questions used.