A New Worry for Republicans: Latino Catholics Offended by Trump

Latino Catholics Trump: Latino Catholics Reject GOP as Church Leaders Slam President

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Latino Catholic voters are abandoning the Republican Party after Donald Trump mocked Pope Francis and ridiculed immigrant devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The exodus threatens GOP control of Florida and could flip Texas by 2028.

Latino Catholics make up 62 percent of the 35 million U.S. Catholics who trace roots to Latin America. They delivered 56 percent of their votes to Trump in 2020 but now register 31 percent support in internal Republican polling. The collapse began after the president told supporters the pontiff “looks like an illegal” and called border-crossers “Mary-worshippers.”

Cardinal José Gómez of Los Angeles read a letter to 3 million parishioners Sunday condemning “disrespect toward symbols that define our faith.” The letter stopped short of endorsing opponents but urged Catholics to “examine consciences” before voting. Similar statements echoed in 14 additional dioceses with large Latino populations, including San Antonio, Phoenix and Denver.

Republican strategists first noticed slippage in March when special-election turnout in South Texas dropped 18 percent in precincts that are more than 80 percent Mexican-American. Party canvassers reported doors slammed after identifying themselves. “We got cursed out in Spanish and English,” one volunteer told the Dallas Morning News on condition of anonymity because the campaign had not authorized him to speak.

The numbers match what pollsters are seeing statewide. A University of Texas survey released Tuesday found Latino Catholics choosing a generic Democrat over Trump 58 percent to 28 percent, a 30-point swing since January. The same poll showed church attendance correlating directly with opposition to the president. Catholics who attend Mass weekly disapproved of Trump 65 percent to 25 percent.

Trump dismissed the criticism during a Wednesday rally in Michigan. “The Pope is weak on borders,” he said. “He wants everyone to come in.” The president also repeated a story about migrants carrying “posters of some lady” instead of the American flag. The crowd roared. Campaign aides later clarified he meant statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint revered by 80 percent of U.S. Latino Catholics.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt framed the dispute as policy, not theology. “The president respects all faiths but will not apologize for protecting our sovereignty,” she told reporters. She declined to say whether Trump would meet with Catholic bishops before November.

Democrats moved fast. Vice-President Kamala Harris visited San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio Thursday, lighting a candle beneath the Guadalupe icon and telling parishioners “your faith built this country.” She spoke in Spanish without translation. The event raised $4 million within 24 hours, according to the Democratic National Committee.

Party aides credit a simple discovery: Latino Catholics behave more like evangelicals than white Catholics when they feel religion is under attack. “They don’t just stay home,” one operative said. “They bring cousins.” Early-vote requests in majority-Hispanic counties in Florida rose 22 percent after Trump’s papal comments, state data shows.

The rupture reverses four years of gains scored by conservatives who branded Democrats as “against God.” Trump won 42 percent of Latino Catholics in 2020 by emphasizing abortion and school choice. He flipped Zapata County, Texas, the first Republican victory there since Herbert Hoover. Those gains now look fragile. County judge-elect Joe Rathmell, a Democrat who takes office in January, said parish halls that once hosted GOP events turned him away this year. “Too soon,” pastors told him. “People are angry.”

Church insiders say the anger is personal. Guadalupe devotion stretches from California fields to Puerto Rican barrios, crossing national lines that often divide Latinos. Mocking the image hits a nerve older than politics. “It’s our mother they’re talking about,” said Sister Dolores Castañeda, who runs citizenship classes at St. Cecilia in Houston. Enrollment jumped from 40 to 110 after Trump’s remarks. “Everyone wants papers before the next election.”

Republican donors are alarmed. Billionaire shipping magnate Mike Fernandez, a lifelong GOP fundraiser, suspended donations until the party “recovers its decency.” In a letter obtained by the Miami Herald, he warned the governor that South Florida realignment depends on “respect, not ridicule.” Other contributors are diverting money to House and Senate races where Latino density is lower.

Background

Latino Catholics first drifted Republican after John Paul II’s 1987 pastoral visit extolled family values that aligned with Reagan-era conservatism. The trend accelerated in 2004 when George W. Bush won 44 percent of the Latino vote by speaking Spanish and portraying himself as a “compassionate conservative.” Trump narrowed the gap in 2020 by emphasizing jobs and anti-socialism rhetoric aimed at Cuban and Venezuelan exiles.

The Virgin of Guadalupe story matters because it fuses indigenous and Catholic identity. According to tradition, the dark-skinned Mary appeared to Aztec convert Juan Diego in 1531, leaving her image on his cloak. The shrine in Mexico City draws 10 million pilgrims annually, and reproductions hang in bodegas, prisons and Army barracks across the hemisphere. Disrespect toward the image is interpreted as disrespect toward an entire people.

What’s Next

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets in Denver on June 15. Immigration and border policy top the agenda, but members say a formal rebuke of Trump is unlikely because the body avoids electoral politics. Individual bishops, however, plan to distribute voter-registration cards after Mass through All Souls Day, a schedule that coincides with early voting in Texas and Florida.

Republican insiders predict Trump will try repair work at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington next month, though organizers have not confirmed his invitation. Without a swift rebound, strategists privately concede the president may write off Nevada and Colorado while scrambling to save Ohio and Iowa, states where Latino turnout could decide control of the Electoral College.