A majority of U.S. voters view Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump as barely religious, according to a new poll.
Just one day after the New York billionaire received the endorsement of evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., the son of a late televangelist and the president of Liberty University, a Pew Research Center survey finds that only 30 percent of voters view Trump as “very” or “somewhat” religious, while 60 percent believe he is “not too” or “not at all” driven by his faith.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is viewed as the least religious candidate with 43 percent of voters indicating they don’t see her as a pious person.
The two Republican candidates polling best among evangelical voters — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — are seen as the most religious 2016 contenders. Sixty-eight percent of voters view Carson as very religious and 65 percent say the same of Cruz. Less than 6 percent of voters said they view either candidate as “not at all” religious.
Among Republican voters, nearly two-thirds say it is “very” or “somewhat” important to elect a president who shares their religious beliefs while 41 percent of Democratic voters agreed.
Overall, 51 percent of U.S. voters felt it is important to have a commander in chief who holds a similar religious perspective, while only 6 percent of voters said they’d be more likely to vote for a nonbeliever.
The Pew survey of 2,009 U.S. voters was conducted between Jan. 7-14 as part of their “Faith and the 2016 campaign” report.
