Bio: Skylar is currently a senior at Michigan State University with a double major in Political Science and Religious Studies. In the fall she is attending Florida State University to pursue a master’s in American Religious History. 

Abstract: In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump won with 81% of the white evangelical vote. I sought to gain a better understanding of American evangelicals and why this particular group of Christians overwhelmingly supported a candidate with a consistent history of racial discrimination and bias. Evangelicals are born-again Christians who emphasize the authority of the Bible, the need for a personal conversion experience, and spreading the gospel with the goal of converting others. Today evangelicals are often imagined as a wealthy, white, conservative, Trump-supporting group. However, approximately 25% of evangelicals are racial minorities. The ways in which the media and scholarship have portrayed evangelicals has white-washed the diversity that comprises the group. In this paper I used research from scholars of American evangelicalism, including Randall Balmer, David Swartz, and Seth Dowland to demonstrate how white American evangelicals have largely promoted “family values” as a means of perpetuating conservative beliefs that lead to racially discriminatory policies and behaviors. I also used data from Pew Research Center to explore how racial minority evangelicals have been largely ignored in politics and media. Recent research has found that white evangelicals feel their power in society and politics is diminishing, so they have supported Donald Trump who promises to protect them, even though he does not necessarily promote Christian values. This combined with the history of racial divide in evangelicalism is why Trump received such broad support from white evangelicals in the 2016 presidential election.

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