More than half of Republicans consider former President Donald Trump a man of faith, ranking him above more vocally religious GOP rivals, according to a new poll.
Deseret News commissioned HarrisX to conduct the survey. Released this week, it asked registered voters whether they consider certain politicians to be people of faith.
The poll found that 53% of Republican voters say Mr. Trump is a person of faith, making him their top choice.
That put him slightly ahead in a statistical tie with former Vice President Mike Pence — an evangelical Christian who earned the same description from 52% of GOP survey respondents — and well ahead of his other rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Just 38% of Republicans described retiring Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah — a devout Mormon and vocal Trump critic who ranked highest among independent voters but is not running for the nomination — as a person of faith.
An analysis by Deseret’s Suzanne Bates cited Mr. Trump’s work to appoint conservative judges and advance a pro-life agenda while in office as factors in the results. She noted that he “rarely talks about his personal faith,” unlike some of his overtly religious GOP primary rivals.
Considering the other candidates, 47% of Republicans said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a person of faith, while 31% said the same of Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, respectively.
Another 30% described tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy as a person of faith, and 22% viewed former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the same light.
Among Democrats, 63% described President Biden as a person of faith, making him their top choice. Just 23% of Republicans and 33% of independents saw Mr. Biden, a Catholic who diverges from his church’s policies on abortion, in the same way.
By contrast, only 14% of Democrats and 19% of independents described Mr. Trump as a man of faith.
The Salt Lake City-based Deseret News, one of Utah’s oldest newspapers, is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Deseret surveyed 1,002 registered voters Sept. 8-11; the survey results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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