14% of U.S. Adults Strongly Back Christian Nationalism, Gallup Data Shows
A Kettering Foundation research fellow says sympathizers reach 31% among white Americans and 55% among Republicans.
By Anthony Foster ·
Religion is moving into the 2026 campaign through measurable public opinion numbers.
Andrew Whitehead, a sociology professor at Indiana University Indianapolis and a research fellow for the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, drew on the foundation's data and Gallup's annual national survey of more than 23,000 adults. He put the share of the U.S. population that strongly embraces Christian nationalism at around 14%, with just over 16% at least sympathetic to it. The share of Americans identifying with the idea is slightly declining.
Whitehead defined Christian nationalism as the belief that Christianity defines the nation and the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Among white Americans, 31% are at least sympathetic to the concept. A third of men are at least sympathetic, against 28% of women. More than half of Republicans, 55%, strongly embrace or sympathize with it.
Whitehead said the two camps read the state of democracy differently. "They're more worried about certain threats, quote unquote, to democracy than are Americans who reject Christian nationalism," he said. Those who strongly embrace it report that democracy is doing great, while among those who reject it, very few think democracy is doing well or even okay.
Whitehead also said that while fewer Americans embrace Christian nationalism, people in federal government and media positions carry that rhetoric into national discussion, making it more a part of political discussion than it used to be.
The near 70% of respondents who resist or reject Christian nationalism are motivated to turn out this midterm cycle, Whitehead said, adding that they are "very motivated for Congress to check the power of the executive branch," which he said has not happened in the first two years of the Trump administration.
Combining religion with politics is far more common among Republicans, but five Democrats on the ballot in congressional races this cycle are clergy or in training to become clergy.
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