CALLISTA GINGRICH: The Realignment Of Catholic Voters To The GOP

Less than one month from the presidential election on Nov. 5, former President Donald J. Trump is making significant headway with Catholics across America.

On Sep. 4, the Trump campaign launched “Catholics for Trump,” a coalition committed to supporting Trump and his mission to protect religious liberty and defend family values. Further, a recent Pew Research Center poll found that 52% of Catholic voters support Trump.

This momentum of Catholic support coalescing around Trump is particularly important considering the religious demographics of key battleground states. In Pennsylvania, 24% of voters identify as Catholic. In other must-win states, including Nevada, Michigan, and Arizona, 25%, 18%, and 21% of voters, respectively, are Catholic.

Vice President Kamala Harris has attempted to reach out to Catholic voters, piggybacking off the announcement of Trump’s initiative and launching her own “Catholics for Harris-Walz” coalition weeks later. However, Catholic voters looking for a candidate who aligns with their values see through this ruse.

As Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, told Fox News: “Kamala Harris represents the most vile anti-Catholic threat of any leading candidate for president in American history. She is a candidate of the hard left.”

Harris’ radical policy record makes this clear.

In 2014, California Attorney General Harris filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. Joined by 13 states and the District of Columbia, Harris called on the court to force Hobby Lobby to cover contraception costs for its employees, in violation of the family-owned chain’s religious beliefs.

She also was a “proud” co-sponsor of the Reproductive FACT Act while she was attorney general. The law, which the Supreme Court eventually struck down, mandated that medically licensed pro-life pregnancy centers display signs advertising free and low-cost abortions available in California.

During her term as a U.S. Senator for California from 2017 to 2021, Harris sponsored legislation that targeted the freedom of Catholics to adhere to their religious beliefs. She was the lead sponsor of the Do No Harm Act, which would have ended religious exemptions for certain government mandates, such as rules requiring insurance coverage of specific medical procedures.

Harris also co-sponsored the Equality Act, which would have enabled the government to prosecute faith-based institutions for refusing to hire employees who openly oppose their religious teachings. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the Equality Act would “run roughshod over religious liberty” and strongly opposed the proposed legislation.

Further, while serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee and questioning Catholic judicial nominees, Sen. Harris showed her vehement bias when she suggested that affiliation with the Knights of Columbus was grounds for disqualification.

While in her current office as vice president, practicing Catholics have been suspected and accused of domestic terrorism and violent extremism under Harris’ watch. According to a press release issued by the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government: “The Committee and Select Subcommittee’s oversight shows that the FBI abused its counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists … and the FBI even proposed developing sources among the Catholic clergy and church leadership.”

Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has also been highly criticized for his extreme policies in his home state that oppose Catholic social teaching. He has significantly expanded abortion access in Minnesota, which has some of the most pro-abortion laws in the U.S., and joked that he was so pro-abortion that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told him to take it down a notch.

Additionally, Walz signed an executive order to make Minnesota a “sanctuary state” for those seeking transgender medical procedures. Walz – a staunch opponent of school choice policies – has also supported gender ideology into Minnesota schools by signing a law prohibiting school boards from removing inappropriate books from school libraries and mandating menstrual hygiene products be made available in male bathrooms.

Walz’s record of radicalism has pushed long-time Minnesota residents out of the state, such as David Deavel, a theologian who moved to Texas after decades of living in Minnesota. Deavel told the National Catholic Register: “As a Catholic, I cannot but see his abortion and transgender extremism, as well as his pushing of divisive cultural policies in schools, as extremely destructive to the common good in Minnesota.”

The individual records of Harris and Walz at the state and federal levels should alarm Catholic voters. Together, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make up the anti-Catholic ticket that would implement policies that are destructive for Catholics and all Americans.

Ambassador Callista L. Gingrich is president and chief executive officer of Gingrich 360, a multimedia production and consulting company based in Arlington, Virginia. She is a former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. For more commentary from Callista Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation.

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