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- Donald Trump secured significant support from Latter-day Saint voters in 2024.
- In Utah, 73% of Latter-day Saints backed Trump, with similar trends in Nevada and Arizona.
- Kamala Harris gained ground among Latter-day Saints, with notable support increases since 2020.
SALT LAKE CITY — President-elect Donald Trump won over a large number of the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who voted in elections in early November.
According to Fox News' 2024 election exit poll, among the Latter-day Saints surveyed 64% supported Trump and 32% supported Vice President Kamala Harris.
In Nevada, where Latter-day Saints made up 4% of voters surveyed, 79% of Latter-day Saints supported Trump compared to 19% for Harris. In Arizona, where Latter-day Saints again made up 4% of voters, 75% supported Trump and Harris received 24% support.
In Utah, where Latter-day Saints made up 52% of voters, 73% of Latter-day Saints supported Trump and 24% supported Harris.
The 2020 Fox News exit poll showed nationally 72% of Latter-day Saints supported Trump compared to 23% for former President Joe Biden.
In the waning days of their campaigns, Trump and Harris scaled up their outreach to Latter-day Saint voters.
Utah Rep. Burgess Owens often appeared on behalf of Trump on the campaign trail, speaking to voters of faith. He was part of the "Latter-day Saints for Trump" coalition, formed a month ahead of Election Day. Owens credited the president-elect with the trifecta Republican victory on Election Day.
"It's no surprise the Latter-day Saint community helped deliver President Trump's win — his commitment to faith, family, and freedom resonates with Utahns and LDS members across the country," he said in a statement to the Deseret News.
"We want a leader who will fight for religious liberty, strong families, and an economy that works for all Americans, and no one has fought harder to deliver that than President Trump."
Utah and the Mountain West's Latter-day Saint population is still strongly aligned with conservative values, but some believe a shift is taking place within these communities.
What do the numbers say about Latter-day Saint voters?
Jacob Rugh, a sociology professor at Brigham Young University, said he believes Harris made inroads with Latter-day Saint voters based on early available data, calling her support among Latter-day Saint voters in Arizona, Utah and nationally "impressive in a year when non-LDS voters clearly moved rightward nationally."
The Fox News exit poll in Arizona from 2020 shows Trump received 80% support from Latter-day Saints, compared to 75% in 2024. In 2020, Biden received 18% support from Latter-day Saint voters in Arizona, compared to 24% support for Harris in 2024.
In Utah, Harris did marginally better than Biden, but Trump also improved his vote share from 2020 to 2024 in the Beehive State, winning 59.3% of the vote in 2024 compared to 37.8% for Harris. In 2020, Trump won 58.1% of the vote in Utah compared to 37.7% for Biden.
Rugh, who participated in the Latter-day Saints for Harris-Walz coalition, pointed out that Trump did not do as well in Utah as some earlier Republican presidential candidates, including Sen. Mitt Romney in 2012, and former President George W. Bush in 2004, who both earned over 70% support from Utah voters. Trump's totals were closer to the late Sen. John McCain's vote share in 2008, when McCain received 62.3% of Utah's votes compared to 34.7% for former President Barack Obama.
A look back at the 2024 presidential campaigns
In the last few weeks of campaigning, both Harris and Trump courted the Latter-day Saint vote, especially in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, where outcomes in the presidential race often come down to razor-thin margins.
Rob Taber, an organizer for the Harris-Walz campaign, noted Latter-day Saint members are a "politically diverse" group, and that "the sooner we recognize that, and are able to talk about that instead of just assuming that everyone will fall in line and vote Republican, the better off we'll be."
The leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirmed their positions on political neutrality in a statement released in October. The church "does not endorse, promote or oppose political parties and their platforms or candidates for political office," the statement said. The church also reiterated its encouragement for members "to be active citizens by registering, exercising their right to vote, and engaging in civic affairs, always demonstrating Christlike love and civility in political discourse."
In his pitch to Latter-day Saint voters in Arizona in an October "LDS 4 Trump" Zoom call, Trump said, "All of us are united around the basic belief that faith in God, and our Judeo-Christian values, are essential to healthy American society."
Harris spoke to Latter-day Saint voters at an October rally in Scottsdale, Arizona, saying, "We have so much more in common than what separates us, especially on the fundamentals."
Taber recalled pivotal moments for Harris that resonated with Latter-day Saint voters, including an opinion piece in the Deseret News.
"Having that kind of deliberate outreach is, you know, very, very good," Taber said. Harris' coalition of Latter-day Saint voters included some Republicans, like Mesa Mayor John Giles.
Yasser Sanchez, a Mesa immigration attorney and a Latter-day Saint, told the Deseret News why he thought voters ultimately supported Trump.
"You can put lipstick on a pig. You can tell somebody that inflation is horrible, even though it's at 2%," said Sanchez, an independent who supported Harris. "We did live through 9% inflation, and that was a huge deciding factor in the election."
