81 percent of white evangelical voters elected Trump in 2016
Evidence
But on November 8 it became clear that the vast majority of evangelicals had come back around. Exit polls revealed that 81 percent of white evangelical voters had handed Trump the presidency. Once again, reports of the death of the Religious Right had been greatly exaggerated. The “Moral Majority” had reasserted itself, electing the least moral candidate in memory to the highest office of the land. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 600
The day after the presidential election, The New York Times exit polls indicated that some 80 percent of voters who identified as white evangelical or born-again Christians ultimately voted for Trump over Hilary Clinton. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 217
In a bracing turn of events, a minority of voters elected Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States. To add to the head-spinning element of the moment, exit polls showed that white evangelical Christians who voted had pulled the lever for Trump at a rate of about 81 percent. — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 7
Categorization
- XREF: The pivotal statistic that anchors the whole book’s argument; central to the continuity-not-hypocrisy thesis. — connects to: White evangelical support alone would lose Trump the presidency — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 109; White Christians supported Trump despite his apparent moral violations — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 18; White Catholics and mainline Protestants joined evangelicals in majority-supporting Trump in 2016. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 52
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 600; Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 217; Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 7