How Trump Is Dividing Minority Voters

For The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein writes that the interplay between race, education, and gender may decide this year’s presidential election. While Biden’s approval has slipped among nonwhite men without a college degree, the majority of nonwhite women without a college degree agree that the Republican Party “has been taken over by racists,” according to PRRI data. PRRI President and Founder Robert P. Jones, Ph.D., told Brownstein that Trump “has had the luxury of running two parallel campaigns,” with his dehumanizing language about immigrants reaching socially conservative white voters through conservative media, while little is getting through to nonwhite voters. “The question is whether he is going to be able to keep up this two-track strategy,” Jones said.

Republican Overreach on Abortion Could Be the Party’s Downfall in November

Sasha Abramsky at The Nation examines the progress of abortion ballot initiatives around the country. Abramsky writes that Florida’s dual rulings on abortion, allowing a 6-week ban to go into effect and putting an abortion-access initiative on the November ballot, have upended political certainties in the state. Meanwhile, in the key battleground states of Arizona and Nevada, activists are working to get enough signatures to put abortion-access initiatives on their states’ election ballots in November. In Arizona, one coalition has gathered over half a million signatures. PRRI research finds that 62% of Arizona voters support legal access to abortion.

Why Rural White Americans’ Resentment Is a Threat to Democracy

Thomas F. Schaller at The Conversation argues that rural white voters have long held “outsized power” in American politics. According to the Census Bureau, roughly 20% of Americans live in rural communities, and three-quarters of them are white. Schaller writes that PRRI data shows white people living in rural areas are more likely to believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and to say violence may be necessary to preserve the nation. Additionally, PRRI finds that QAnon supporters are 1.5 times more likely to live in rural areas than urban ones. People who live in rural areas are also less likely to believe that votes will be counted accurately and fairly,according to a 2022 poll from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

‘Human Flourishing’ Survey Links Frequent Religious Practice to Life Satisfaction

For Religion News Service, Fiona André reports that a new study conducted by a consortium of scholars and pollsters led by Gallupfound correlations between religiosity and people’s satisfaction with their lives. The survey, which was attempting to determine what factors influence “human flourishing,” interviewed more than 200,000 people in more than 20 countries. Earlier studies have demonstrated that religion could help young people struggling with mental health issuesand that involvement in a congregation can influence happiness. PRRI finds that in 2023, 24% of Americans attend religious services at least once a week.