One-fifth of Republicans are conservative or observant Catholics and look like the history of industrialized America that took pro-life, socially conservative, patriotic Catholics into the Republican Party, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast. That is why we conducted one of our focus groups for the Trump-GOP project among Catholic conservative men from Macomb County, Michigan. The participants reflected that history: seven-in-ten were 50 or older, making them the oldest voters in the GOP base, and they held traditional blue color jobs in the auto-industry, mechanics, and construction. …
Catholic conservatives call the GOP home because of their social conservative views on issues like abortion and gay marriage and their deep patriotism. That gives them good reasons for supporting Donald Trump, in addition to the strong macro-economy and his efforts to get more companies to grow factories in the US.
These Catholic conservatives were excited that Donald Trump was getting the chance to appoint a second Supreme Court Justice because others were “trying to get rid of God.” But with the Kennedy vacancy, “the conservatives are in charge, [and] chances are they’re going to get their way” on cases like Roe v. Wade, which would be “a good thing.” CONT. – pdf
James Carville & Stanley Greenberg, Democracy Corps