Pew: Trump’s support among Catholic voters drops heading into midterms
A Pew Research Center survey found Donald Trump’s approval among Catholic voters fell from 47% at the start of his second term to 30% in October 2026. Approval declined among both Hispanic Catholics, from 31% to 18%, and white Catholics, from 59% to 39%. Catholic voters were nearly split on House preferences: 42% favored Democrats, 39% Republicans, and 19% were unsure or preferred another party. White Catholics leaned toward Republican House candidates, while Hispanic Catholics strongly favored Democrats, according to the survey.
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Pew’s October 2026 survey found President Donald Trump’s approval had fallen among Catholic voters since the start of his second term, while Catholic voters remained divided over congressional candidates ahead of the midterms. Preferences differed sharply between white and Hispanic Catholics.
Trump’s approval among Catholics overall declined from 47% at the beginning of his second term to 30% in October 2026. Among white Catholics, it fell from 59% to 39%; among Hispanic Catholics, from 31% to 18%.
Pew also found Trump underwater with every religious group except white evangelicals. Even among white evangelicals, his approval fell from 78% to 58% over the same period.
Asked how they would vote for the House if the election were held at the time of the survey, 42% of Catholics chose the Democratic candidate in their district and 39% the Republican candidate; 19% were unsure or preferred another party’s candidate.
The overall figures mask a substantial divide: 50% of white Catholics said they would vote Republican and 32% Democratic, while 59% of Hispanic Catholics favored the Democratic candidate and 19% the Republican. The remaining respondents in each group were unsure or chose another party.
Trump himself is not on the November ballot because he is term-limited, but Republicans are seeking to retain majorities in the House and Senate. The article notes that views of a president can influence voters’ choices in midterm elections.
Pew’s figures cited in the article put the U.S. Catholic population at 54% White and 36% Hispanic, with smaller shares identifying as Asian, Black, or another race. Hispanic Catholics tend to be younger: four in 10 are 50 or older, compared with seven in 10 white Catholics.
Catholic voters have supported candidates from both parties in recent presidential elections. The article says most supported Trump in 2024, with Latino Catholics contributing to his gains, after backing Joe Biden in 2020.
The article reports that pollsters have linked Trump’s broader approval decline to the unpopular war in Iran and rising energy costs. It also notes that Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV after the pope’s rebuke of the war came before the decline among Catholics, and that polls showed broad disapproval of Trump’s comments about the pontiff.
Catholic political conscience amid partisan polarization
Catholic political conscience amid partisan polarization requires two commitments at once: Catholics must judge political choices by moral truth, not party loyalty, and they must engage opponents without surrendering truth or the dignity of those with whom they disagree. The aim is not partisan neutrality or withdrawal from public life, but prudent participation ordered toward the common good.
In Catholic teaching, conscience is a judgment of reason about whether a concrete act is right or wrong—not a feeling, personal preference, or permission to do whatever one wants. Catholics have a lifelong responsibility to form conscience through the Church’s teaching, Scripture, reliable knowledge of the issues, and prayerful reflection. A sincere judgment can still be mistaken if conscience has not been responsibly formed.
That matters in politics because slogans and party identities can make a choice feel obvious before a person has examined its moral substance. The bishops call Catholics to use prudence: the virtue that helps a person discern the good in particular circumstances and choose fitting means to pursue it. Political judgments often involve complex facts and competing practical options, so prudence is needed to apply moral principles rather than simply repeat them.
The Church does not tell Catholics to vote for particular candidates. The responsibility to assess candidates and public actions belongs to each voter, whose conscience should be formed by Catholic teaching. But this personal responsibility is not a license to treat every political judgment as equally compatible with the faith.
Catholics are called to evaluate policies, platforms, promises, and actions in light of human dignity and the common good, alongside the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. The bishops warn that party affiliation should be influenced by faith, not faith reshaped to fit party affiliation. Catholics may work within parties, but should be willing to challenge them when they neglect fundamental moral truths.
This means neither party can simply be identified with the Church’s whole moral vision. A Catholic should resist the temptation to excuse a serious wrong because “our side” supports it, or to dismiss a genuine good because “the other side” proposes it. Faithful political judgment asks not merely, “Which side is mine?” but, “What does justice require, who is affected, and what can these policies and candidates actually achieve?”
Catholic political judgment takes account of many threats to human dignity, including abortion, euthanasia, violence, human trafficking, poverty, racism, the suffering of migrants and refugees, war, and threats to religious freedom. The bishops identify abortion as a pre-eminent priority because it directly attacks the most vulnerable and voiceless; they also warn against ignoring other grave threats to life and dignity.
The bishops further teach that issues do not all carry the same moral weight. Policies promoting intrinsically evil acts have a special claim on conscience and action. At the same time, an election judgment also considers a candidate’s commitments, character, integrity, and ability to influence a given issue. This calls for moral seriousness without reducing discernment to a single slogan or treating every issue as interchangeable.
The available material sets out this framework, but it does not settle how every particular voter should weigh every candidate or policy in every election. Such decisions require accurate local facts, attention to likely consequences, and prudent judgment by the voter. The Church’s role is to form consciences in the moral principles; it does not replace the voter’s responsibility to apply them.
Polarization becomes especially dangerous when politics is conducted through fear, anger, and the demonization of opponents. The bishops describe these habits as a feature of contemporary political life and call Catholics instead to an engagement centered on human dignity, the common good, and the protection of vulnerable people.
This does not mean avoiding disagreement or hiding one’s convictions. The bishops call for frank dialogue and openness to others, while continuing to discuss beliefs and seek ways to work together. Their appeal to the Good Samaritan gives this approach a concrete test: do political convictions lead us to notice and serve people in need, including those outside our preferred group, or mainly to blame and despise them?
A practical discipline follows: learn the facts before repeating a claim; distinguish a person’s dignity from the rightness of that person’s position; examine candidates’ character as well as their policy statements; and choose forms of speech that correct or persuade without slander and malice. The bishops specifically encourage stepping back from social media and other political noise, spending time with Scripture and prayer, and serving people in need.
Catholic political conscience, then, is neither party obedience nor disengagement. It is the demanding work of forming judgment in truth, applying it prudently to real choices, and pursuing the common good without letting political conflict extinguish charity.