President Donald Trump’s support among white evangelical Protestant voters remains strong, but has declined since he was re-elected in January 2025, a new poll shows.
Trump’s approval rating among the group has fallen to 63% from 77% during his second term, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released this month.
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The change comes as President Trump’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 31 percent.
White evangelicals are considered a key demographic in the Republican Party, and their decline could be significant in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when right-wing parties seek to defend their congressional majorities.
There is still widespread support for Democrats to take control of the US House of Representatives. As frustration over affordability and the U.S.-Israel war against Iran grows, the chances of them flipping the Senate are also increasing.
But experts say Republicans are counting on their base to counter signs of Democratic gains in the polls.
On Wednesday, Trump campaigned in South Carolina, a state in the southern “Bible Belt” where white evangelicals account for six in 10 Republican voters in the 2024 presidential primary, according to exit polls.
Mr. Trump carried the state by nearly 18 points in the 2024 presidential election, but polls show Republican Sen. Darline Graham holding only a narrow lead over Democratic challenger Annie Andrews with two weeks until midterm voting.
As he has in previous campaigns, Trump focused his speech in South Carolina on several social issues that resonate with conservative Christians, including policies related to transgender people. During the rally, he referred to Andrews with an anti-transgender slur.
Despite Andrews’ moderate position on the issue within the Democratic Party, Trump said elsewhere in the speech that “she is a passionate transgender activist.” “How the hell am I running in South Carolina? Am I in a different state?”
White evangelicals have long been a key demographic in the Trump administration, accounting for nearly one-third of Trump’s winning coalition in 2024, according to research by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and a verified voter analysis by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
The US president has been able to maintain support from major evangelical leaders despite a series of scandals that conflict with the conservative values espoused by evangelicals. President Trump has faced allegations of sexual misconduct and extramarital affairs, which he denies.
Overall, about 80% of white evangelical voters voted for Trump in the 2024 general election. This demographic makes up about 13% of the US total.
In addition to states like South Carolina, evangelicals in Iowa and Kansas in the Midwest and Texas in the South could be key to Republicans maintaining control of the Senate.
Christian faith leaders are challenging Republicans in several top races, including United Methodist minister Adam Hamilton in Kansas and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico in Texas.
Both Hamilton and Talarico are not evangelicals, but represent mainline Protestant denominations.
White evangelicals’ voting trends differ from other evangelical groups. For example, black Protestant evangelicals, pioneers of the U.S. civil rights movement, remain a major voting bloc for the Democratic Party.
Still, support for Trump among evangelicals remains strong compared to other demographics.
It remains unclear whether changing attitudes toward Trump will affect conservative turnout during the midterm elections, when the U.S. president is not on the ballot.
Reuters pointed out that in the final stages of the midterm elections, only white evangelicals had support for President Trump above 60%.
The decline in approval ratings for this group was less dramatic than for President Trump overall, dropping 14 points compared to a 16-point drop in approval ratings for Americans overall.
