Donald Trump’s presidential campaign targeted Catholic voters, as he appeared at the Al Smith gala for Catholic Charities in New York and gave a short interview to EWTN.
At the gala – the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel – Trump was boorish at times, insulting Vice President Kamala Harris’ intelligence. He said her failure to attend the gala was “deeply disrespectful” to Catholics.
Trump also joked that the hotel needed the ballroom to house “illegal aliens coming in from Texas”. Catholic Charities has been in the forefront of caring for undocumented immigrants.
Harris did not attend the gala in person, but sent in a video message. In the past, the Archdiocese of New York has not invited presidential candidates who were in favour of abortion rights, including President Bill Clinton and Senator John Kerry. Harris was invited but, according to her campaign, had a scheduling conflict.
In his EWTN interview, Trump called Harris “a Marxist”. He defended his efforts to moderate his position on abortion, saying: “Exceptions are very important to me. Life of the mother, rape and incest.”
Asked about Pope Francis telling voters they had to choose the “lesser of two evils”, Trump claimed the Pope was referring to himself as the “lesser” evil. “I think [the Pope] wants [Catholics] to vote for me, and I stand for everything that you stand for and that the church stands for,” Trump said.
His efforts appeared to be succeeding, as a poll of Catholic voters in the seven key swing states conducted for the National Catholic Reporter showed Trump leading with 50 per cent to Harris’ 45 per cent.
The poll showed that partisan identification shaped Catholics’ views on political issues more than Church teaching. For example, Catholic Democrats supported Harris’ promotion of abortion rights while Catholic Republicans supported Trump’s draconian immigration policies.
Unlike some religious demographics, the poll showed that Catholics straddle the electorate. While evangelicals overwhelmingly support Republicans and those with no particular religious affiliation overwhelmingly support Democrats, Catholics are found in both parties in roughly equal percentages.
However, white Catholics are more likely to support the Republicans while Latino Catholics are more likely to support the Democrats.
The poll surveyed 1,172 Catholics in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.86 percentage points.
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