POLL: Likely Catholic Voters Favor Barrett’s Nomination

 

President Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court may actually help him win the Catholic vote, given that likely Catholic voters favor her confirmation.

According to a RealClear Opinion Research poll conducted in partnership with EWTN News, the poll showed that 46% of likely Catholic voters favored Barrett’s confirmation versus 28% that opposed it. 27% had no opinion.

“Support was divided among political lines, with 77% of Catholic Republicans supporting the nomination and 4% opposing, compared to 24% of Catholic Democrats supporting and 46% opposing,” reported Catholic News Agency (CNA). “Nearly 4 in 10 Catholic independents support Barrett’s nomination, with almost 3 in 10 opposing and about 1 in 3 saying they don’t have enough information to make a decision.”

“57% of men surveyed said they support the appointment, compared to 37% of women. 54% of white survey respondents said they support the nomination, compared to 40% of Black respondents and 32% of Hispanics,” the report continued.

Catholics more in line with traditional Church teaching overwhelmingly favored Barrett’s confirmation with 74% in favor. Of those who do not accept all church teaching, only 39% supported her confirmation.

Barrett’s Catholic faith has been the source of much contention ever since Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said “the dogma lives loudly within you” during her confirmation hearing for the Seventh Circuit back in 2017. Though various media outlets and pundits severely scrutinized her faith upon her Supreme Court nomination, Senate Democrats largely avoided the subject, opting instead to attack her on the Affordable Care Act.

“This nominee has said she wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, this president wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. Let’s keep our eye on the ball,” former Vice President Joe Biden said as he denounced attacks on Barrett’s faith.

“The Affordable Care Act survived by one vote thanks to Justice Ginsburg being on the court. Judge Barrett has signaled as clearly as she can that she’s going to go the opposite direction from Justice Ginsburg,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said.

“The president has promised to appoint justices who will vote to dismantle that law. As a candidate, he criticized the Supreme Court for upholding the law and said, ‘If I win the presidency, my judicial appointments will do the right thing, unlike Bush’s appointee John Roberts on ObamaCare,’” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in her opening statement for Barrett’s confirmation hearing.

When Barrett’s faith was brought up during the hearing, it was largely from Republicans, who quoted the Democrats’ previous statements that her faith would corrupt her ability to be an impartial juror.

Comedian Bill Maher lamented this past weekend that Democrats should actively criticize Amy Coney Barrett’s faith.

“There’s another strain of uber-conservative Catholics who have an agenda and an enormous and growing influence to achieve it. It’s really about pining for a return to the Middle Ages, when the church was the state,” said Maher.

“These old-school Catholics, they play the long game,” he added. “Amy Coney Barrett has been on their radar since forever because she was raised in an extremist Catholic community. These are the folks who make Jehovah’s Witnesses say ‘Shhh, don’t open the door!’”