Which Shepherds to Follow?: Cross-Pressured Catholic Politics in a Polarized America

How do voters react when their social identities (e.g. religion, race, gender, class, etc.) become a source of political cross-pressures? In other words, how do individuals respond when their social identities do not simply reinforce a particular partisanship but rather present political cues that align with different partisan or ideological orientations? Social and partisan identities, and cross-pressures specifically, have long been a subject of study for political scientists. However, increased sorting of social groups in American politics with either of the two major political parties has challenged the conventional understanding of the relationship between social and partisan identities in American society—while also contributing to political polarization. This dissertation examines the extent to which social identities that have remained politically unsorted in American politics can still influence the politics of their members. Specifically, this work considers these questions by focusing on Roman Catholics in the United States, a major social identity group which has remained relatively unsorted in politics even amidst rising partisan polarization. Subsequently, this dissertation also presents one of the most in-depth studies of the politics of the largest religious denomination in the United States. As American Catholics have transitioned from a committed bloc of the Democratic Party base to a politically diverse constituency in recent decades, the extent to which Catholic identity and religiosity matter in modern politics has become a critical question. Meanwhile, the social and moral teachings of the Catholic Church, which align with the Republican Party on some issues and the Democratic Party on others, serves as a powerful source of possible cross-pressures for lay Catholics. Using time-series survey data from the 1940s through the 2020s, an original representative national public opinion survey of the political attitudes of American Catholics, and multiple survey experiments, this dissertation provides new details and insights into modern Catholic politics. This dissertation specifically includes new evidence about the extent to which Catholic individuals feel torn between their faith and their politics, important nuance about how policy cues from religious leaders can influence public attitudes, and how religious identity and ideology can shape voters’ candidate evaluations. As the Roman Catholic Church begins the papacy of the first American pope, Pope Leo XIV, this dissertation examines how identity, religiosity, ethnicity, and partisanship influence the cross-pressured politics of one of the United States’ largest and most politically salient religious groups.<p></p>