While key campaign issues like the economy, energy, and immigration will remain at center stage leading up to November, this election will also have massive implications for one of the most crucial—yet among the most frequently overlooked—voter blocs: American Catholics.
As both campaigns seek to curry favor with churchgoing Catholics as the campaign season enters its final sprint, the Trump-Vance camp appears to have a clear advantage in the case it can credibly make to voters. While Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have established a clear record of anti-Catholic bigotry, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance cumulatively make up the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-family, pro-children, and pro-worker ticket ever to seek elected office in the United States. If elected, they could prove to be among the most pro-Catholic presidential administrations in American history.
When it comes to Donald Trump’s record on issues important to Catholics, he has already established himself as among the most Catholic-friendly figures to ever sit behind the Resolute Desk.
During his first term in the White House, Trump nominated and confirmed more than 230 conservative judges to the federal bench, reshaping the judiciary in an ideological direction that will uphold Catholic principles. The Supreme Court’s current 6-3 conservative majority—cemented by Trump’s three appointees—has delivered historic victories for the causes of life, religious liberty, and freedom of conscience.
Trump also notably took steps to protect the conscience rights of doctors, nurses, teachers, and faith-based groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor that have been relentlessly and unconstitutionally targeted by the Obama and Biden administrations. He protected faith-based adoption and foster care centers, launched the International Religious Freedom Alliance to fight back against global religious persecution, and ensured American taxpayer dollars were not being used to fund abortions overseas.
Additionally, Donald Trump has already solidified his status as one of the most pro-family presidents in U.S. history. The first Trump administration doubled the child tax credit, enacted the largest-ever increase in Child Care and Development Block Grants (bolstering access to childcare for low-income families), and created the nation’s first paid family leave tax credit, among other initiatives that empower parents, support children, and incentivize and strengthen American families.
Meanwhile, J.D. Vance is himself a Catholic convert who has written and spoken extensively about his faith journey and the Catholic Church’s teachings in public life.
“My views on public policy and what the optimal state should look like are pretty aligned with Catholic social teaching,” Vance stated in a 2019 interview. “That was one of the things that drew me to the Catholic Church. I saw a real overlap between what I would like to see and what the Catholic Church would like to see. I hope my faith makes me more compassionate and able to identify with people who are struggling. But my politics have been pretty consistent over the past few years.”
In recent months on the campaign trail, the many overlaps between Trump’s America First agenda and the longstanding doctrines of the Catholic Church have become even clearer.
Trump has, for instance, promised to combat radical gender ideology in schools and outlaw prescribing cross-sex hormones and irreversible transgender surgeries to minors, a practice which Pope Francis has condemned as a grave violation of human dignity and antithetical to Biblical (as well as basic biological) truths about gender. Trump has also pledged to oppose the late-term abortion-on-demand agenda of Kamala Harris and the Democrat Party, called for universal school choice and parental rights, and promised to purge anti-Christian zealots from the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies.
By contrast, Kamala Harris has amassed a shockingly extensive record of hostility toward the Catholic faith. As a senator, she insinuated that practicing Catholics or members of the charitable group the Knights of Columbus could not serve as federal judges. She also introduced the so-called “Do No Harm Act,” which would compel Catholic doctors to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs and perform abortions and transgender surgeries on patients. The legislation would also force religious groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, as well as Catholic hospitals, schools, and charities, to violate their religious beliefs.
As Attorney General of California, Harris sponsored the so-called “FACT Act,” which legally required pregnancy care centers to advertise for free or low-cost abortion facilities in their waiting rooms. And to top it all off, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice has repeatedly targeted traditionally-minded Catholics (whom the FBI smeared as “possible domestic terrorists”) and persecuted pro-life activists.
It should go without saying that, for every American of faith—and particularly American Catholics—the stakes of this fall’s election could not be higher. If Harris and Walz manage to eke out a victory, the Democrats’ crusade of anti-Catholic bigotry and persecution would reach new heights. But if Donald Trump and J.D. Vance win the White House this fall, they could pave the way for a historic resurgence of Catholicism and usher in an era of freedom, family, and prosperity.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
