Mesa Mayor John Giles, co-chair of the Arizona chapter of the Harris Republican Party, is one of many Latter-day Saint leaders disillusioned by Donald Trump’s comments. Mr. Giles spoke at the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on August 20, 2024. (File photo: Kelechukwu Iruoma/Cronkite News)
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris launch a voting rights coalition targeting nearly 500,000 Latter-day Saints in Arizona, a battleground state where every voting bloc counts in the presidential election. Ta.
Trump pitched himself to Arizona LDS voters earlier this month while campaigning in Prescott Valley. “We really have the same values,” President Trump told attendees at the “LDS for Trump” event held online.
But the number of LDS voters who are disillusioned with President Trump is growing, a shift first evidenced in 2020 when 18% of LDS voters in Arizona chose Joe Biden. This was revealed in a New York Times exit poll. The Survey Center of American Life’s national poll also found that more than half of LDS voters surveyed expressed negative feelings toward Trump, while just three-quarters of white evangelical Protestants expressed negative feelings toward Trump. It was found that more than 2 people viewed him positively.
“I think immigration is actually a big factor. Immigration has had a slightly different impact on Latter-day Saint voters,” said Rob Taber, national director of Latter-day Saints at Harris Walz.
Taber was a staunch Republican who carried her child in a stroller to protest President Trump’s 2017 travel ban, which restricted people from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. He remembers seeing the members’ families, but he said it was because they felt strongly about it.
LDS voters differ from other religious groups in their progressive stance on immigration. A 2020 academic study found that this perspective is informed by the experience of growing up in a church where young people are sent overseas as missionaries, which increases their tolerance for illegal immigration.
“Travel is said to cure prejudice,” said Stacey Pearson, a Democratic political consultant. “That means we have a group of highly educated, well-traveled people who value their families and can’t stand the idea of deporting a father and leaving behind an American-born child and spouse. That’s it.”
This idea contradicts President Trump’s hardline border security rhetoric, which includes calls for the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. While Harris has strengthened her stance on border issues, she has not publicly disparaged immigrants, a choice that could appeal to sympathetic LDS voters, according to border scholars at Arizona State University.
“As an immigration scholar, Kamala[Harris]and Trump’s views on immigration are really not all that different in terms of how they deal with the border,” said Brittany Romanello, an immigration postdoctoral fellow who studies LDS identity. “The rhetoric on Harris’ side is much more humane and inclusive.”
Taber said President Trump’s talking points on immigration are “grid in the wheel that makes Republican voters think twice” and is a “huge incentive” for LDS members to join the pro-Harris LDS Coalition. .
“This is one of the conversations I’ve had over and over again. These are people who have served overseas, whether it’s somewhere in Latin America, Africa, Asia, or immigrant families. And they really feel that Trump’s rhetoric on immigration is absolutely vile and disgusting,” Taber said.
Romanello, who grew up in the church, said President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric “doesn’t sit well with” some LDS people’s beliefs about immigration, but they discuss which values are most important when voting. Ta.
Abortion is “the biggest issue that keeps someone in the Trump camp,” said Tyler Montague, a Republican political consultant who heads the Arizona Public Integrity Alliance.
“Harris and the Democratic Party in general have ostracized LDS voters who are very pro-abortion, so in a way they swallow their teeth and vote for Trump, even if he doesn’t like them,” Montague said. he said.
But he also said a “significant number” of LDS voters may not vote Republican this election cycle, giving Harris a boost in battleground states like Arizona, which Biden won by just 10,000 votes. He also said that there is enough to do so.
“She could definitely make a difference by appealing to LDS people,” Montague said.
For some LDS voters in Arizona, like DeAngelo Perez, a 23-year-old from Mesa, Trump was never an option.
“I’m a person of color. My father is an immigrant, so back in 2016, that kind of made me hate him,” he said. “Voting for Harris in this election is a pretty clear choice for me.”
Arizona’s LDS community has pushed back against politicians who enact and enforce anti-immigrant laws in the past.
In 2010, they helped recall state Sen. Russell Pierce, the sponsor of the controversial “Show me your documents” Senate Bill 1070. The LDS Church favors a balanced approach and rejected enforcement-only measures like SB1070.
Pearson, the Democratic consultant who helped Paul Penzone defeat Arpaio in 2016, said LDS voters were eager to oust Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is known for illegally targeting the Latino community when enacting SB1070. He also contributed. He said LDS voters have been key to Arizona elections ever since, including handing the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race to Katie Hobbs.
“That community is definitely moral and has rejected extremism,” Pearson said.
According to the Pew Research Center, LDS support for the Republican presidential ticket also fell from 80% for George W. Bush in 2004 to 80% in 2016, even as other religious groups have moved to the right. Trump’s percentage dropped significantly to 61%.
Prominent LDS politicians have criticized Trump, including former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers. Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and Mesa Mayor John Giles have fully endorsed Harris, and Giles spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August. But Romanello said there is still social pressure within the predominantly Republican LDS community to identify as conservative.
“Even though the church isn’t telling people to vote Republican, it’s still very much a cultural thing in the social circles at the local congregation level,” Romanello said. “If we lose the networks we’ve built, primarily other Mormons, we have a lot more to lose.”
