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Catholic voters were the biggest winners in the 2024 election, the head of a pro-life group said.
"The victory is huge for Catholic voters. Trump handily won the Catholic vote," Shawn Carney, founder of 40 Days For Life, told Fox News Digital.
"I know the Al Smith Dinner gets a lot of attention for that. That certainly wasn't a wise move for [VP Harris] to not go to that. But I think it's more than just dressing up in a dress or a tuxedo and going to a fundraiser. We Catholics always get the impression from, frankly, the Biden-Harris administration that they hated Catholics, and they hate religion.
"We see what they've tolerated, in some cases, encouraged what's happened to the Jews. We saw the DOJ target Catholics and target pro-lifers. And you just got that sense that they didn't like or respect Catholics."
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According to exit polling by Fox News on election night, Catholics across the country swung nine percentage points in Trump’s favor, with Trump winning Catholics by 10 points.
Catholics were evenly split between President Biden and Trump in 2020, with 50% favoring Trump to 49% favoring Biden.
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While the Catholic swing exceeded expectations on the national level, the margin of Catholic voters favoring Trump was even larger in some of the most critical swing states.
In Pennsylvania, which has 19 electoral votes and was considered the most important swing state by both candidates, Catholics make up a quarter of the electorate. According to Fox exit polling, Catholic voters in Pennsylvania favored Trump by a 13-point margin of 56% to 43%.
Catholic voters in two of the next largest swing states — North Carolina (16 electoral votes) and Michigan (15 electoral votes) — voted in Trump’s favor by 17 and 20 percentage points, respectively.
Trump also won over Wisconsin Catholics by 16 percentage points, helping to deliver the state’s 10 electoral votes to the former president.
Carney said Harris "ran on abortion," pointing to the social issue as the candidate's downfall.
"Kamala ran on abortion, and she celebrated abortion," he said. "Her campaign was depressing at best.
"Latinos are against abortion. Catholics are against abortion. And even the liberal Catholics who are going to vote Democrat who may tolerate abortion, they don't want it shoved down their throats," he said. "Her barbaric approach to celebrate something that the Catholic Church adamantly teaches against was one of her many downfalls."
Carney said many Catholic voters were "uncomfortable" with the left "celebrating abortion."
"I think the other thing that they've ignored that Catholics in America still care about, no matter what you hear, is that morality matters," he said. "And it doesn't matter how liberal or conservative a Catholic is. There's still a moral objectivity to it that makes people uncomfortable when it's celebrated by somebody running for president."
Carney said other top issues were freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
"There's no doubt that Catholics were looking at free speech. And a lot of people have criticized Donald Trump for many of his stances. He's waffled on abortion at certain times," he said. "But, by far, he's been the most pro-life president ever, and he's been the most pro-free speech president we've ever had."
Carney pointed to Trump advocating on behalf of the Little Sisters of the Poor incident after the religious organization was taken to court for not providing contraception.
"There definitely was that sentiment that, 'Look, if they're going to go after Trump, if they're going to go after Catholics, if they're going to go after pro-lifers, it's only a matter of time until they find something in our life that they don't like or disagree with, and they come after us,'" he said.
"This was a huge free speech victory for Catholics because the Biden-Harris administration, for the first time, Obama never did this. Clinton never did it. George W. Bush never did it," he said. "They targeted religious people, particularly Catholics, based on religion and the fact that they had the power to do so.
"And you can't target Catholics and expect them to vote for you."
