Marie Gayte & Blandine Chelini-Pont 
Catholics and US Politics After the 2016 Elections [PDF ebook] 
Understanding the “Swing Vote’

This book examines both the evolution of the Catholic vote in the US and the role of Catholic voters in the historic 2016 elections. There is a paucity of academic works on Catholics and US politics—scholars of religion and US politics tend to focus on evangelical Protestant voters—even though Catholics are widely considered the swing vote in national elections. The 2016 presidential election proves that the swing vote component of that group matters in close elections. What Trump gained from his impressive showing among Catholics, he could certainly lose in 2020 (should he seek re-election), just as Hillary Clinton lost the clear advantage among Catholics achieved by Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. The book begins by analyzing the ideological patterns in the politics of U.S. Catholics as well as key alliances, and concludes by studying the political influences of the U.S. Catholic Bishops and the Holy See. 

Table of Content

​1.  Introduction: The Catholic Vote in the United States.- 2. Catholic Patterns in the American Left.- 3. Catholic Colonization of the American Right.- 4. Catholics and Evangelicals: Does Donald Trump Mean the End of the Religious Right?.- 5. The U.S. Catholic Bishops: From Separationism to Public Intervention.- 6. The Holy See and the Catholic Community in the 2016 Presidential Election.- 7. The Catholic Vote in the Election of Donald J. Trump.- 8. A Catholic Latino Vote?.- 9. “Can We Get the Catholic Vote”?: The Effects of Catholic Running Mates in Presidential Elections.- 10. Catholics and the 2016 Elections.

About the author

Marie Gayte is Associate Professor of U.S. History at Toulon University, FR



Blandine Chelini-Pont is Professor of Contemporary History at Aix-Marseille University, FR


 


Mark J. Rozell is Dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government and Ruth D. and John T. Hazel Chair in Public Policy at George Mason University, US