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WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Catholic voters have soured on President Donald Trump since he returned to the White House last year, a new Pew Research Center survey found.
Although Trump, who is term-limited, is not on November’s ballot, his fellow Republicans are attempting to defend majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Voters’ perceptions of a president are likely to influence their choices at the ballot box in midterm elections, historic election data shows.
The Pew survey found that among all Catholics, Trump’s approval rating has dropped from 47% at the beginning of his second term to 30% in October 2026. Among Hispanic Catholics, it dropped from 31% to 18%, and among white Catholics from 59% to 39% over the same period.
Trump, the survey also found, is underwater with every religious group except white evangelicals. But even among that group, Trump has seen a 20-point drop in support from 78% to 58% across the same period of time.
More broadly, the survey found registered voters are more likely to support Democratic candidates than Republican ones across most religious groups. But Pew found white Catholics and Hispanic Catholics divide sharply over their support for congressional Republicans and Democrats in the midterms.
Among all Catholics, the survey found 42% said that if the election were held today, they would vote for the Democrat in their House district, 39% said the Republican, while another 19% said they were unsure or would select another party’s candidate.
Among white Catholics, 50% said they would support the Republican candidate, and 32% said the Democrat, with another 18% unsure.
Among Hispanic Catholics, 59% said they would support the Democrat, 19% said the Republican candidate, and 21% said they were unsure.
Catholic demographics and voter trends
According to Pew survey data, the U.S. Catholic population is 54% White, 36% Hispanic, 4% Asian, 2% Black, with an additional 2% identifying as another race. Pew found Hispanic Catholics, however, trend much younger than white Catholics, with four in 10 Hispanic Catholics being 50 and older compared to 70% of white Catholics.
Although election data shows most Catholic voters supported Trump in 2024, with Latino Catholics driving notable gains. But Catholic voters as a whole have varied in recent presidential elections about which party most of them choose to support. For example, election data shows that most Catholic voters supported Al Gore in 2000, George W. Bush in 2004, Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012, Trump in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, before supporting Trump again in 2024.
Many pollsters have attributed the broader dip in Trump’s approval rating to the ongoing and unpopular war in Iran, as well as to related climbing energy costs.
The dip among Catholics also comes after Trump made a series of social media and verbal attacks on Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S.-born pope and a naturalized Peruvian citizen — after the pontiff’s criticism of that war.
Polls also showed Americans broadly disapproved of Trump’s comments about the pope.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
