A Pew Research Center study of the 2024 U.S. presidential election found that, while it lacked sufficient data on Jewish voters to draw specific conclusions, overall, those who attend religious services at least monthly preferred Donald Trump to Kamala Harris by a margin of about 2-to-1.
Some 64% of those who go to services monthly or more often voted for U.S. President Donald Trump in 2024, up from 59% in 2020. According to Pew data, approximately 34% of voters chose Kamala Harris, the former U.S. vice president.
Among those who attend services less than once a month, 56% voted for Harris, compared to 43% for Trump. (In 2020, 40% of the less frequent service attendees voted for Trump.)
Pew analyzed survey responses from 8,942 American citizens, who are part of its American Trends Panel, and verified whether they voted in the 2024, 2020 and 2016 presidential elections and in the 2018 and 2022 midterms. The surveys were conducted between Nov. 12 and 17, 2024.
Overall, Jews voted for Harris over Trump by a 28 percentage point margin, 63% to 35%, according to Pew data. That was a smaller margin than in 2020 (43 percentage points), when Jews voted for former President Joe Biden over Trump 70% to 27%, and in 2016, when Jews voted for former first lady Hillary Clinton over Trump by a 36 percentage point margin, 66% to 30%.
In the 2022 midterms, Jews voted for Democrats over Republicans 68% to 32% (a 36 percentage point margin), which was less than the 2018 midterms, when they voted for Democrats 72% to 28% (a 44 percentage point margin), according to Pew data.
In recent years, Jews have comprised between 2% and 3% of the U.S. electorate, or approximately 1% of Republican voters and 3% of Democratic voters, according to Pew.
In the most recent election, Pew found that Protestants voted (62%) for Trump by a wider margin (26 percentage points) than in 2020 (19 points). “Trump’s gains among Protestants included small but significant gains from defectors: 5% of Protestants who voted for Biden in 2020 switched to Trump in 2024, while just 3% of Trump’s 2020 Protestants went to Harris,” Pew said.
“Trump also gained—through changes in turnout—among black Protestants and among Protestants of a race or ethnicity other than white or black,” according to Pew.
A similar percentage of evangelicals voted for Trump in 2024 (81%) and 2020 (83%), and white non-evangelical Protestants voted at nearly the same rate in 2024 (58%) and 2020 (57%), according to the survey.
Catholics were more likely in 2024 to vote for Trump (55%) than for Harris (43%). In 2020, half (50%) voted for Biden and 49% for Trump.
“As with Protestants, Trump benefited from a small advantage among Catholic defectors: 7% of 2020 Biden voters converted to Trump voters in 2024, while just 4% of Catholics who favored Trump in the earlier election shifted to Harris,” Pew said. “The remainder of Trump’s gains with this group came from changes in turnout.”
