This concern about government overreach with the Affordable Care Act and out-of-control spending, as well as about illegal immigration, points to a “Tea Party-ization” of white Catholics. And trends in Congress bear this out. Even as Catholic voters first began to shift their loyalties in terms of presidential elections, the House of Representatives remained a Catholic Democrat bastion. In 2009, there were almost three times as many Catholic Democrats as Catholic Republicans — 98 Democrats to 37 Republicans. But as of 2015, House Republicans who identify as Catholic outnumber Catholic Democrats — 69 to 68 — for the first time ever.
According to William D’Antonio, who is with Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research and who has studied the religious composition of Congress extensively, what’s driving this trend is the increasing number of Catholics being elected from congressional districts in the South. There are more Catholics in the South overall as a result of population shifts from the Northeast and Rust Belt states, as well as Hispanic migration. But even then, Catholics seem to be punching above their weight electorally speaking. For instance, D’Antonio notes that Catholics comprise less than 10 percent of the population in North Carolina but hold two (or roughly 15 percent) of the state’s 13 congressional seats.
And the difference between these Southern Catholic Democrats and their Northern and Midwestern counterparts is dramatic, as can be seen by their ratings on the voting scorecard issue by the Catholic social justice lobby Network, which rates key congressional votes on issues like social welfare and defense spending and immigration reform.
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