Are Trump and Harris particularly Christian? Most Americans wouldn’t say that: AP-NORC poll

Vice President Kamala Harris is a Baptist who was influenced by the religious traditions of her mother’s homeland, India.

Former President Donald Trump grew up as a Presbyterian but began to describe himself as a nondenominational Christian toward the end of his presidency.

Still, few Americans consider the presidential candidates to be particularly Christian, according to a new poll conducted Sept. 12-16 by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. Only 14 percent of American adults say the word “Christian” describes Harris or Trump “extremely” or “very” well.

Amazingly, this seems to matter little to a portion of Trump’s loyal base, white evangelical Protestants. About 7 in 10 members of this group view him favorably. But only about half say Trump best represents their beliefs – about 1 in 10 say this about Harris, and a third say neither candidate represents their religious beliefs – and about 2 in 10 say “Christian” describes him extremely well or very well.

“They really don’t care whether he’s religious or not,” said R. Marie Griffith, a professor of religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis.

The poll results show how white evangelicals think about morality and religion in politics today, Griffith said. She pointed to a white evangelical culture that cares about its own people but views liberal outsiders as evil, and so supporting a Democrat is unimaginable for many.

Evangelical leaders, she said, take the view that “this is a man of God and we cannot ask why. We don’t have to ask why. It doesn’t matter if he’s moral, it doesn’t matter if he’s religious. It doesn’t matter if he’s a compulsive liar. It’s for the common good that we get him re-elected.”

At the Republican National Convention, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a conservative Christian and former White House press secretary to Trump, invoked God as she addressed the first assassination attempt against him.

“Almighty God intervened because America is a nation under God and he is far from finished with President Trump,” she said. “And our country is better off because of it.”

Anthea Butler, a professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said white evangelicals likely see him as a way to achieve their goals, such as appointing conservative, anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court.

“He’s her man no matter what,” Butler said.

A large majority – three-quarters – of Harris’s black Protestant co-religionists view the Democratic frontrunner favorably, and 6 in 10 say she best represents their religious beliefs. But only about 4 in 10 say “Christian” describes her very well or extremely well. That’s still more than the share of Democrats overall who think this about Harris, which is about a quarter.

Butler is not surprised that Trump’s esteem is low among black Protestants and that they view Harris – a Baptist with influences from the spiritual tradition of India, her mother’s homeland – as more of a Christian.

“I think African Americans have a better understanding of families with different religions because that is common in our country,” she said.

Overall, about half of Americans surveyed said the word “Christian” at least “somewhat” applied to Harris, while about a third said so of Trump.

Griffith wondered if one reason so few Americans see Harris as particularly Christian is that they simply don’t know much about her yet. Harris entered the race late, becoming the Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden was pressured to step down in July.

The Black Church PAC, a progressive group, is currently trying to mobilize voters for Harris. In a recent online discussion hosted by the PAC, Missouri-based United Church of Christ minister Reverend Traci Blackmon urged pastors to tell congregants every Sunday to pull out their phones and check their voter registration status, and to prepare to use the church bus to drive them to polling places.

“Kamala Harris is not perfect – nobody is perfect. But she is competent. She is prepared. She is qualified. … She stands by what she promises and is brave enough to say what she will not do,” Blackmon said.

Neither candidate fared particularly well when Americans were asked if they would use the words “honest” or “moral” to describe them. About a third say those words apply extremely or very well to Harris, and about 15 percent say the same about Trump. When you add in those who say the words apply “somewhat” to the candidates, the proportion rises to more than half for Harris and about a third for Trump.

“I wonder if this just reflects a deep cynicism about politics – that people are really so convinced that all politicians are liars,” Griffith said.

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The survey of 2,028 adults was conducted September 12-16, 2024. The sample came from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US and a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.