In an election survey conducted by Nashville-based LifeWay Research, results showed that more than half of U.S. Church pastors will vote for Trump.
"Pastors vote like any other American," said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.
53% of pastors plan to vote for Donald Trump while 21% plan to vote for Joe Biden. 22% reported undecided and 4% are voting for a different candidate.
"The large number of pastors who are still undecided may reflect difficulty in finding a candidate who aligns with their overall beliefs. Also, some pastors are intensely private about their political preferences and may prefer to respond 'undecided' than to even confidentially share their voting intentions," McConell shared.
Compared to 2016, this is a progressive advancement for voter participation within the community of pastors.
"There were a lot of unknowns in 2016, including Trump being an outsider candidate and little sense of how others would respond to supporting his candidacy," McConnell said.
In 2016, 40% of pastors were undecided midway through September whereas the statistics are slashed into nearly half the percentage for the 2020 elections.
"Pastors know their options for 2020, and a majority are willing to vote for him."
61% of African American pastors plan to vote for Biden, while 6% say they plan to vote for Trump. Younger pastors of ages ranging from 18 to 44 are the least likely (41%) to support the incumbent president for reelection and only 16% of pastors identify as Democrat while 23% identify themselves as independent. Statistics also varied by denomination in that Pentecostal (70%) and Baptist pastors (67%) are more likely to vote for Trump than pastors in the Restorationist movement (49%), Lutherans (43%), Presbyterian/Reformed (24%) or Methodists (22%).
