The Catholic vote: Influential or insignificant?

Lara Miller, ’17, is facing a major dilemma in the upcoming presidential election.

“I always say that as a Catholic, I feel politically homeless,” said Miller.

Miller is one of approximately 32 million Catholic voters in the United States who face the same choice in the upcoming election. Catholic voters, who make up an estimated 25 percent of the country’s electorate, have been informed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) via their website that issues such as the dignity of human life, affordable health care, and justice in migration are among some of the issues that should be informing their vote.

“If you want to vote for people and the protection of people in this election, then you are forced to choose which issues to prioritize,” Miller said. “From a faith perspective and in my prayer, I struggle with that.”

According to Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, however, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have “astonishing flaws” that make both candidates undeserving of the Catholic vote by the USCCB guidelines. More recently, in an Oct. 13 article written for Catholic Philly, Chaput referred to Clinton as a “scheming, robotic liar.”

However, Catholics across the nation appear to be throwing their support to the Democratic candidate. An August 2016 poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that 55 percent of Catholics support Clinton, while 32 percent support Trump.

But a racial divide becomes clear when these statistics are broken down further. While 76 percent of non-white Catholics support Clinton, white Catholics were more evenly split: 44 percent say they support Clinton, and 41 percent support Trump.

According to the Pew Research Center, this political divide between non-white and white Catholics in the 2016 election is, for the most part, representative of previous presidential elections. Non-white and Hispanic Catholics tend to support the Democratic candidate more heavily, but while white Catholics are statistically more likely to favor the conservative, PRRI polling suggests that a slight majority of white Catholics support Clinton in this election.

“There’s going to be a lot of people voting in a way that they otherwise wouldn’t,” said Katie Oxx, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology and religious studies at Saint Joseph’s University. “There are folks who otherwise would probably be leaning towards the Republican party, but their interests are being rejected by one candidate or the other. The invisible forms of racism and the way that they have, in the past, come out in other ways that aren’t particularly named ‘racism,’ are being labeled as racism now. So I think that’s going to move some people around, also.”

The outcome of Catholic support for either candidate, Oxx said, is difficult to predict. She does believe, however, that current Catholic polling is accurate.

“I think that she [Clinton] appeals more to the vast majority of Catholics,” Oxx said.

Randall Miller, Ph.D., professor of history and co-professor of a course titled, “Elections in Historical Context” being taught this semester, agreed that by this point in the race, Clinton may be the better option to many Catholics.

“I would argue that Trump’s open disrespect for people—people with disabilities, people who are not ‘pretty,’ just go down the list—in terms of what we know from polling, has proven to be very, very disturbing to many Catholics,” Miller said.

Miller, however, does not believe that the Catholic electorate is a unified voting bloc to consider in 2016.

“I would argue that today, there is no such thing as ‘the Catholic vote,'” Miller said. “There are Catholic interests, there are Catholic voters. Catholic voters and Catholic interests can align and that can be important. But there is no national Catholic bloc.”

This is, in part, due to the increasingly intersectional nature of Catholicism. According to Miller, the political interests of Catholic voters can be determined by their location, age, or race and ethnicity.

“You have to pull out which Catholic voters are you talking about, and which Catholic interests are in it,” Miller said. “Being a Catholic, itself, is a contested identity today.”

In light of this struggle, Beth Ford McNamee, assistant director of Campus Ministry, has been active in educating Catholic voters on Saint Joseph’s University’s campus.

“I think the primary role for Campus Ministry and our department has been bringing to light our traditional Catholic social teaching and asking students to consider Catholic social teaching values of our current, contemporary society,” McNamee said.

Grace Davis, ’17, is one student that has been taking advantage of these opportunities for political reflection. According to Davis, her Catholic faith will influence her vote this November.

“Something that I’ve just been thinking a lot about is immigration and criminal justice reform,” Davis said. “I think that’s something that’s talked a lot about on campus, too. Just making sure that even the people that are marginalized are still acknowledged as humans, that’s important.”

Though Lara Miller, ’17, considers herself “politically homeless,” she also echoed Davis, stating that her faith has caused her to think deeply on many social issues.

“Absolutely—immigration, criminal justice reform, race relations, abortion, the refugee crisis—all those issues involve people,” Miller said.

Though Miller noted that this election puts many Catholics such as herself in a difficult position in respect to which candidate, if either, better represents Catholic teachings, she is ultimately hopeful for the future.

“It’s not just about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, this is America and it’s a democracy, not a monarchy. [It’s important] to make sure that your vote is informed for all the people on the ballot and who’s going to uphold Catholic beliefs on the entire ballot.