Using data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study 2020, pastor and Eastern Illinois University professor Ryan Burge determined that 13.1% of Americans are white evangelicals who vote Republican (see chart).
Dr. Richard Land contends that because white evangelicals are the largest religious voting bloc in the country, "a Republican candidate cannot win with just white evangelical votes. But he or she [also] cannot win without them" – prompting his warning that the GOP should not take its evangelical base for granted.
Six percent of voters are white Catholic Republicans; and 5% of those who identify as "mainline" Protestants also vote Republican. That latter stat caught Land's attention.
"To me the most surprising thing in the whole graphic [below] was that among mainline Protestants, more of them voted Republican than voted Democrat. That shocks me," he admits.
Land, president-emeritus of Southern Evangelical Seminary, predicts those Republican voters of faith will turn out in the next two national elections and, as a result, turn things around on Capitol Hill.
"I think that the Democrats are going to lose control of the House in 2022, [and] I think they're going to lose control of the Senate in 2022," he tells One News Now.
Land continued with his predictions, focusing on 2024: "I [also] think it's going to be very, very difficult for Mr. Biden to run for reelection – and [Vice President] Kamala Harris will not get the nomination for the Democrats because the Democrats do not have a suicide wish."
But Land shares that he's hopeful President Biden will make it through his whole first term, offering his rationale: "An addled and mentally declining Joe Biden is preferable to a fully alert Kamala Harris."
