Trump flag replaced US flag near Columbus. Will Christians replace faith for politics?
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Michael R. Fisher, Jr. is an assistant professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at Ohio State University.
A Columbus developer recently replaced a giant American flag at one of its apartment complexes with a 2024 campaign banner for former President Donald J. Trump. The American flag was later added back.
Although Trump is now a convicted felon who was found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial in New York, the raising of a Trump campaign banner by a local business just over one week after his conviction is an illustration of continued support among many voters in the Buckeye State.
While some Ohio politicians like Gov. Mike DeWine have largely remained silent on Trump’s conviction, others like U.S. Sen. Vance, a potential Trump VP candidate, have brazenly called the verdict “a disgrace to the rule of law and our Constitution,” while unapologetically campaigning for him.
As a professor at the Ohio State University who studies and writes about race, religion and politics in the U.S., I’m paying close attention this November to the motivations of voters of faith, particularly those who qualify as Christian nationalists.
Others should do the same.
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How will Ohio's white Christian nationalists vote after Trump's conviction?
Building on other research in the field, the Public Religion Research Institute recently released new survey data that estimates support for Christian nationalism by measuring Americans’ agreement with the five following statements:
The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation.
U.S. laws should be based on Christian values.
If the U.S. moves away from its Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.
Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.
God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.
According to this data, nearly three in ten Americans qualify as Christian nationalists. Zooming in, around three in ten Ohioans qualify as the same, including 49% of Republicans, 25% of Independents and 15% of Democrats.
Among Ohioans who qualify as Christian nationalists, almost three-quarters of them are white compared to roughly one-quarter who are people of color. Looking at religion, half of Ohioans who qualify as Christian nationalists are white Protestants and about one-eighth are Protestants of color.
The report also finds that Christian nationalism is positively correlated with presidential vote choice in the 2020 election. The higher one scores on a Christian nationalism scale, the more likely one voted for Trump in 2020. Ohio, specifically, has an average score of 0.32 on the Christian nationalism scale and 53% of Ohioan voters cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.
Trump’s conviction doesn’t prevent him from running again for president, and as the likely GOP nominee, he will again appear on the ballot in November. I’ll be watching closely to see how Christian nationalists in Ohio vote in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction to see if this trend holds.
Trump doesn't uphold Christian values
Christianity emphasizes, among other things, the importance of kindness, humility and love. Trump isn’t known for these virtues.
In fact, many would argue he epitomizes the opposite.
This is why the allegiance to Trump among Christian nationalists presents as a peculiar contradiction with the tenets of Christianity. As a convicted felon who was fundamentally found guilty of dishonesty, Trump now appears even more beyond the pale of laudable Christian moral character.
Future data on how Christian nationalists vote nationally and in Ohio may further show that they are governed more by their ideological and political aims than the tenets of the Christian faith.
If so, then we need a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between race, religion and politics in the US. This is why I’m paying attention to Christian nationalists in the 2024 presidential election and invite others to do likewise.
Michael R. Fisher, Jr. is an assistant professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at Ohio State University.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Does convict Trump still have the Ohio's Christian nationalists vote?
