President Donald Trump is working to regain the Republican predominance of Mormon voters, despite some of the fiercest never-Trumpers, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and ex-Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., working against him.
"I do think Trump in 2016 — there were questions among not just Mormons, but other communities of faith," Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS), told Politico.
"I think Mormons, especially, start looking at him as a different type of candidate than they did in 2016 because now he has a record."
Trump has positioned his campaign strong on pro life and religious freedom, particularly amid the global coronavirus pandemic as Democrat leaders closed down places of worship and kept open places of abortions.
Battleground states like Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, some heavy on mail balloting, have a strong Mormon voting contingent.
Mormon support for Republicans was 80% in 2004, before dropping to 78% in Romney's election loss in 2012 and 61% in Trump's 2016 victory – despite most other Christians moving to the right – according to the Pew Research Center.
"It's not going to be shocking that Trump wins the Mormon vote, but if it's 10-15 points off of the norm in Nevada and Arizona, that's a big deal," Brigham Young University professor Quin Monson told Politico. "It's the equivalent of Republicans suddenly getting a quarter of the African-American vote, and I do think it's within the realm of possibility. They've not come around completely on Donald Trump."
There are 400,000-plus LDS members in Arizona alone, setting up a battleground inside the state battleground between Joe Biden and Trump.
"The Biden campaign seems much more aware of the Latter-day Saint diaspora in the Mountain West and the Atlantic South," national co-chair of Latter-day Saint Democrats of America Rob Taber told Politico.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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