While the press continues to spin various theories on why Donald Trump
, and not their favorite, Hillary Clinton, won on November 8, they have overlooked the role evangelical and Catholic voters played in the results.
According to an exit poll analysis from FedUp PAC founder Richard Viguerie, evangelicals and Catholics were an essential part of Trump’s winning coalition.
“Overall,” Viguerie said, “81 percent of white evangelicals and 60 percent of white Catholics nationally cast their vote for Trump.”
Mirroring changes seen in how some states cast their ballots in 2016 versus 2012, Viguerie said “Catholics overall voted 52 percent for Trump and 45 percent for Clinton.” In 2012, Catholic voters chose Barack Obama over Mitt Romney 50 to 48 percent.
In Florida, which polls long showed was a toss-up, Viguerie said “20 percent of the voters in that key battleground state are white evangelicals, 85 percent of them voted for Trump, compared to 13 percent for Clinton.”
Viguerie said FedUp PAC focused its efforts on mobilizing Catholic voters in 14 key states, sending more than “3.4 million online get-out-the-vote (GOTV) communications in those battleground states.”
“For conservatives,” Viguerie said, “it is always necessary to use the new and alternative media to go around the mainstream media and speak directly to the voters.”
“Ronald Reagan did that using direct mail,” Viguerie said, “and the media were shocked the morning after Election Day 1980.”
Viguerie said the 2016 election results, “in terms of the shock it sent to the mainstream media, is perhaps on par with that great day in 1980.”