Donald Trump's Favorability Among 'Highly Religious' White Protestant Republicans on the Rise
But he's unlikely to reach Ted Cruz-like appeal, Gallup finds.
— -- Donald Trump has maintained and even increased his favorability numbers among white Protestant Republican voters in the past few weeks, a recent Gallup poll shows.
The numbers stand in stark contrast to the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll showing his loss of support in the past few weeks among several other key voting blocs, including Hispanics and African-Americans.
The Gallup poll found that Trump’s favorability among “highly religious” white Protestant Republicans increased to 66 percent this month from 57 percent in the window between February and the end of May. The 9-point gain is reflective of attitudes among evangelical Republicans, according to Gallup.
“Highly religious white Protestant Republicans, a core group whose support presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sought last week, are slightly more positive about Trump now than they were from February to May,” Gallup said.
Fifty-four percent of white Protestant Republicans identify as highly religious, according to Gallup.
The poll reflects positively on Trump’s efforts to reach out to evangelical voters, as evidenced by his recent speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference in Washington. The slight increase in support for Trump comes after Sen. Ted Cruz’s decision to drop out of the race in May. Cruz had performed well among evangelical voters.
Gallup points out, however, that when factoring in race and partisanship, “religiosity doesn’t make much of a difference in views of Trump.”
Trump polls relatively well among all white Protestant Republicans. Trump’s favorability increased 3 points among “moderately religious” white Protestant Republicans, to 73 percent from 70 percent in the same period of time, while remaining mostly steady among “not religious” white Protestant Republicans.
Sixty-five percent of Republicans who identified in the Gallup poll this month as “not religious” white Protestants view Trump favorably, which is not a statistically significant difference from the 64 percent of the “not religious” white Protestant Republicans who viewed him favorably between February and May.
While support among highly religious white Protestant Republicans increased, the Gallup poll also shows that support among white Protestant Republicans overall has remained steady and relatively close in number among people claiming varying degrees of religiosity.
Given the relatively small difference in favorability among highly religious white Protestant Republicans, when compared to “moderately religious” and “not religious” white Protestant Republicans, Gallup concludes, “it's not clear whether Trump will ever generate the type of differentially strong appeal among evangelicals as was the case for Cruz.”