People who don’t believe in God gave President Biden the winning edge in the 2020 popular vote, a Pew Research Study released this week revealed.
Mr. Biden, often billed by the press as “a very devout Roman Catholic,” won 53% of the religiously “unaffiliated” vote, the study reported, up from the 41% of such voters who backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Only 14% of the “nones” voted for Mr. Trump in 2020, the group said.
In addition, Mr. Biden won 39% of the White Catholic vote, a group that went to Mr. Trump overall at 59%. Hispanic Catholics were solidly behind Mr. Biden at 71%, 44 points more than Mr. Trump‘s 27% in that group.
White evangelical voters, a key constituency for Mr. Trump, gave him 81% of their vote in 2020, up 4 points from 2016. Mr. Biden received 17% of White evangelical votes, 1% more than Mrs. Clinton did.
“Without such broad support for Trump among White evangelicals, Biden would have beaten him by more than 20 points,” the Pew survey reported. Conversely, the group said, “without the religiously unaffiliated, Trump would have had a 9-point popular vote margin over Biden.”
In other results from the study, voters under 30 backed Mr. Biden by 59% versus 35% for Mr. Trump. Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, pulled for Mr. Trump over Mr. Biden, 51% to 48%.
While Mr. Biden recorded a 9% gain in support among suburban voters compared to Mrs. Clinton, 54% versus 45%, Mr. Trump gained among Hispanic voters, particularly among those without a four-year college degree. There, Mr. Trump polled 41% versus 30% for Mr. Biden.
Pew said the results were drawn from its American Trends Panel survey. The 2020 survey was conducted Nov. 12-17, 2020, with 11,818 panelists, the group said.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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