Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden is holding a 12-point lead over President Donald Trump with likely voters identifying as Catholics, according to EWTN News/RealClear Opinion poll.
The poll of 1,212 likely Catholic voters showed 53% favor Biden and 41% prefer Trump. The poll was taken from Aug. 27 through Sept. 1, before the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and released on Monday. It carries a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The poll indicated Biden, who is a Catholic, has widened the gap among Catholic voters after 50% said they voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and 45% voted for Trump. According to the Pew Research Center, 52% of Catholics voted for Trump, and 44% voted for Clinton.
Even though Trump is trailing Biden among Catholics, he could attract their votes by nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court seat previously held by Ginsburg, reports The Hill.
Barrett has questioned the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling and says the Obamacare birth control mandate is "a grave violation of religious freedom."
The poll showed that Trump does lead among some Catholic voters:
- 58% of Catholics who attend Mass daily back the president, along with 61% of people who attend services more than once weekly.
- 69% of Catholics who seldom attend Mass support Biden.
- White Catholic voters picked Trump by 5 percentage points.
- Biden leads among Hispanic Catholics by 63% to 31%.
The poll also showed that Catholics overwhelmingly oppose demonstrations that result in vandalizing churches or toppling statues such as that of Christopher Columbus, but they said they still trust Biden over Trump on almost everything except for trade policy with China.
Further, 57% said they did not approve of how Trump has handled the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden also led Trump by 51% to 40% in a poll of likely Catholic voters in late January and early February about a theoretical head-to-head contest.