Red State Christians: Understanding the Voters Who Elected Donald Trump

Journalist and Lutheran minister Denker investigates why evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election in her enriching debut. During the run-up to the election, she explains, Christian nationalism “battled for pre-eminence with the universal... gospel of Jesus Christ” as Christians started to “look for anyone who would make them winners again.” Republican evangelicals argued that Trump’s former abuse of women could be overlooked if he ran on pro-life issues, and, according to Denker, they see his follow-through on campaign promises to nominate conservative judges to the Supreme Court as validation of their views. Denker studies a geographically diverse group, surveying Christians from Orange County, Calif.; Naples, Fla.; Cole Camp, Mo.; and Houston, Tex., among many others. While she finds many evangelicals supportive of Trump solely based on his pro-life stance, other mainstream Protestant voters in rural areas Denker visited “saw an underlying flow of economic boons and conservative governance” that would come with “running the country like a business.” In a particularly illuminating section comprised of interviews in Appalachia, Denker details how Christians supported Trump because he could “restore national pride and patriotism,” and that they “resonated with Trump’s condemnation of kneeling NFL players, focusing on the idea of Trump as the paragon of national pride.” Through attending sermons, interviewing churchgoers and students, and diligently recording her experiences, Denker etches a vivid and revealing picture of the moral bargains struck by evangelical Christian Americans. (Aug.)