What share of white evangelical voters supported Trump in recent elections?

1. How many white evangelicals voted for Trump in the 2024 election?

Multiple large post‑election surveys and exit‑poll style analyses put Trump’s share of the white evangelical vote near 80%; AP VoteCast and other media reporting said about eight in ten white evangelical Protestant voters supported Trump in 2024, which is echoed by PBS and Gallup summaries of VoteCast data ^{[1] [5] [2]}. Religious‑group breakdowns in faith‑focused outlets and exit‑poll summaries similarly reported Trump winning roughly 81–82% of white born‑again/evangelical Christians in 2024, a rise from 76%–81% ranges cited for earlier elections ^{[3] [6] [2]}.

2. Why do some polls report lower numbers (mid‑60s to high‑70s)?

Not all surveys ask the same question or sample at the same time—some measure declared vote intention in pre‑election polls while others measure actual vote or post‑election recall—so figures like 68% in a Fox News pre‑election poll (reported March 2024) reflect prospective vote choice at that moment rather than final exit polling ^[7]. Approval‑rating polls that ask whether respondents approve of Trump’s job as president yield yet another metric: a Pew Center tracking survey in April 2025 found 72% of white evangelicals approved of how Trump was doing as president, a figure that is comparable but not identical to vote share ^[4].

3. Larger surveys and academic/advocacy polls show variation but similar story

PRRI and other research organizations have reported somewhat different topline numbers—PRRI’s post‑election figures appeared in several outlets showing very strong pro‑Trump margins among white evangelicals (examples cited range into the low‑to‑mid‑80s in some PRRI summaries), underscoring how sample, weighting and question wording shift the percentage up or down ^{[8] [9]}. Opinion pieces and historical analyses also note that prior elections saw white evangelical support for Trump in the 76–81% range, so the 2024 result fits a multi‑election pattern of overwhelming backing ^{[6] [10]}.

4. What explains the steadfastness of the vote beyond the numbers?

Coverage highlights that white evangelical alignment with Trump reflects partisan identity, priorities like abortion and immigration, and perceptions of cultural threat—factors that keep support high even when some critics within the faith community object to his personal conduct ^{[11] [1]}. Analysts also caution that political labeling (“white evangelical”) can cover diverse subgroups—regular churchgoers, younger evangelicals, clergy dissenters—so aggregate percentages mask internal variation even when the headline figure is large ^{[9] [11]}.

5. How should readers interpret the range of figures?

The most defensible summary from the available reporting is that in the 2024 election Trump captured roughly 80–82% of white evangelical voters according to major exit‑poll and post‑election surveys, while contemporaneous pre‑election and approval polls produced estimates ranging from the high 60s to the mid‑70s; those differences stem from timing, question type (vote intention vs. approval vs. recall) and sampling choices, not from a single “mystery” swing in voter sentiment ^{[1] [2] [7] [4]}.

6. Limits of the reporting and alternative viewpoints

The sources agree on the broad pattern of strong evangelical support but diverge on precise percentages; some outlets emphasize the political and cultural drivers of that support while others highlight dissent within the clergy or growing Democratic inroads in subsegments—both narratives are present in the reporting, and the exact share depends on which poll and which moment one cites ^{[12] [7] [3]}. The available documents do not allow a single definitive percentage that covers every definition of “white evangelical” across every poll, so the conclusion must be presented as a range grounded in documented surveys ^{[1] [2] [4]}.