Americans United is bracing for a fresh spate of attacks on the church-state wall in the wake of Donald Trump’s Nov. 5 victory in the presidential race.
Trump aggressively courted Christian Nationalist groups during his race against Vice President Kamala Harris. Aided by an electorate feeling skittish over the state of the economy, Trump clinched a 312-226 vote in the Electoral College and won the popular vote as well.
Americans United has vowed to push back against the Trump-Christian Nationalist assault against the church-state wall after Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), take office next month.
“We are deeply dismayed, but undeterred. Christian Nationalism has seized power in a way it could not on Jan. 6, 2021, and we have a serious fight ahead,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, in a statement the day after the election. “Trump and his Christian Nationalist inner circle will try to abuse their power to privilege a chosen few at the expense of our most marginalized communities.
“We’ve been warning of the dangers of Project 2025 and white Christian Nationalism, and we know that the majority of Americans are against their agenda. ‘We the People’ are with us,” Laser added. “That is our path to victory. For nearly 80 years, Americans United has defended church-state separation and repelled previous waves of white Christian Nationalism. We’ve been through a Trump administration before. It was a hard four years, but we fought back and ultimately defeated many of the harmful policies he enacted, either through the 10 lawsuits AU brought challenging Trump administration policies or by working with the Biden administration and Congress to reverse his policies and block his agenda. We’re not giving up now.”
Although Trump did well, one down-ballot candidate who parroted Christian Nationalism fell short. In North Carolina, Republican gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who highlighted culture war issues and attacked LGBTQ+ people, was defeated by Attorney General Josh Stein, 55%-40%. Stein will be the state’s first Jewish governor. Robinson was hampered by allegations that he frequented adult book stores in the 1990s and early 2000s, long after he claimed to have become a born-again Christian, and that he referred to himself as a “black Nazi” on an adult-oriented message board.
Church-state separation also fared well in a series of ballot initiatives. Reproductive rights were on the ballot in 10 states, and measures to enshrine the right to abortion passed in seven of them: Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York. (New York’s provision also amends the state constitution to bar discrimination based on pregnancy as well as age, gender identity and sexual orientation.)
A measure to overturn Florida’s six-week ban failed; it needed to get 60% approval but fell a few points short. Abortion rights measures also failed in Nebraska and South Dakota.
Americans United was especially pleased to see the win for reproductive rights in Missouri, where the organization and its allies had filed a lawsuit in state court arguing that the state’s strict abortion ban elevates one religious view over others and violates church-state separation.
Three states — Colorado, Kentucky and Nebraska — faced ballot initiatives promoting private school vouchers, and all failed. The Kentucky initiative, which would have changed the state constitution to allow for taxpayer funding of private schools, failed with 65% voting “no.” The Nebraska measure repeals a state law creating a voucher program. About 58% voted to end the law. In Colorado, an initiative to add language to the state constitution aimed at paving the way for vouchers failed with 52% voting against it. (The measure needed 55% support to pass.)
These results are in line with dozens of votes since 1967 where Americans have rejected taxpayer aid to private schools at the polls.
In addition, voters in Colorado, Hawaii and California voted to remove language from their state constitutions that banned marriage equality. The California measure takes the additional step of enshrining marriage equality in the state constitution. (The bans are currently unenforceable in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges declaring marriage equality a constitutional right.)
Exit polling from CNN and other sources revealed some interesting data about the religious makeup of Trump voters. Generally speaking, religious voters tended toward Trump. He won broad support from 81% of white evangelicals. Catholic voters, who backed President Joe Biden by a five-point margin in 2020, swung over to Trump by a double-digit margin. About six in 10 Protestants supported Trump over Harris, and they made up about 40% of the electorate. Harris drew support from voters who reported no religion — they supported her by a 3-to-1 margin. Hispanic Protestants supported Trump by 64%, and Hispanic Catholics did so by 53%.
In the days after the election, Americans United hosted two events to help its supporters interpret the results. A Nov. 12 webinar featured a panel that included Nik Nartowicz, AU’s lead policy counsel; Pooja Chaudhuri of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; and Eric Ward of Race Forward.
The event was part of SRF365, a series of free, year-round virtual programs that offers a taste of what attendees can expect at AU’s annual Summit for Religious Freedom (SRF). SRF this year will take place in the greater Washington, D.C. area and virtually April 5-7. SRF365 amplifies and supplements the Summit’s content and creates a year-round hub for education, building power, networking and taking action together.
The second event, “Religion, Democracy & the 2024 Election,” took place Nov. 21 in Los Angeles. It featured two panel discussions with a group of scholars and leaders who helped attendees process the election results and prepare for what lies ahead.
Moderated by Dan Miller, the co-host of the “Straight White American Jesus” podcast, the event’s panelists were: Laser; Andrew L. Seidel, vice president of strategic communications for Americans United; Bradley Onishi, co-host of “Straight White American Jesus” and author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism — And What Comes Next; Arlene Sanchez Walsh, author of Pentecostals in America; Khyati Joshi, author of White Christian Privilege; and Julie Ingersoll, author of Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction.
In her post-election statement, AU’s Laser urged the organization’s supporters to remain steadfast.
“We know people are scared for their family and friends and themselves,” Laser said. “But we are building a movement that will be a bulwark against this rising tide of white Christian Nationalism. We’re organizing and fighting in every community, county, city, and state — everywhere. Church-state separation is the cure for white Christian Nationalism, and it’s also the foundation of our democracy. Americans United is ready. We were made for moments like this.”