Late last week, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign announced the creation of an advisory board here in Arizona made up of members of an unlikely voting block for the Democratic candidate: Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For a long time, Latter-day Saints voters were a reliable Republican vote here, where there are nearly half a million Latter-Day Saints, and across the country. But, that picture has begun to change in the era of Donald Trump.
Now, especially among Latter-day Saint women, we’re seeing interest in Kamala Harris.
Kellen Browning, reporter for The New York Times covering the 2024 election in Arizona and Nevada, said he's heard stories of women putting Post-it notes in women’s restrooms in churches, telling them their husbands won’t know who they vote for. Browning joined The Show to talk about his reporting in Latter-day Saint communities in the East Valley.
Full conversation
KELLEN BROWNING: LDS voters have been Republican for generations. They view their religion and their morals, more in alignment with Republicans and they voted for Republican candidates in the past. But we have seen since Donald Trump came onto the scene that they have been hesitant to back him. And we saw that a significant portion of Mormon voters in Arizona back Joe Biden in 2020. So the question now is, can Kamala Harris gain that same kind of support from them?
LAUREN GILGER: Right. And this was surprising at the time and watching that kind of shift away from the Republican Party for some of these voters has been really interesting. Talk a little bit about the reporting you did here, the people you met and what seems to be swaying these, you know, traditionally Republican and conservative voters away from specifically Donald Trump.
BROWNING: Sure LDS voters have for years been not thrilled with Donald Trump. I think it's safe to say they have not liked what they view as his character flaws. Some of the things he says about immigrants and women, his personality, so they were already drifting away from him to some degree.
And this year it seems like there are some factors that make them more than ever conflicted and unhappy about supporting Donald Trump. They really did not like the criminal cases against him. His involvement in the January 6th Capitol riot. These are all things that felt like they confirmed their worst fears about his character.
So they're really wrestling right now with whether to continue supporting a Republican as they have done traditionally or to potentially take this leap and back a Democrat, some of them for the first time.
GILGER: Yeah, some of them for the first time. For sure. Is there, from what you can tell, a gender divide here? Like I know I've heard a little bit more probably about LDS women being more likely to vote for Harris this time around. Is that true from your reporting?
BROWNING: Yeah, that's what my reporting has found that there are a number of LDS women in Arizona that feel like there could be a significant gap in support between men and women in the church in terms of who they back this November, especially because there's this sense from Mormon women that perhaps some of the abortion restrictions that states have put in place since the overturning of Roe v. Wade have gone a little bit too far.
And that might be surprising to some people because Mormon voters have traditionally been more conservative, they have been against abortion in, in, in many cases, with some exceptions. But there is this, this feeling from some of the women that I spoke with that, you know, maybe we need to be rethinking things a little bit. Maybe some of these restrictions are just a little bit too much. And there's even this sense perhaps that some women might vote for Kamala Harris without their husbands or other people in their life knowing about this.
GILGER: Right. And there's sort of an underground kind of campaign going on about that, about not having to tell your husband who you vote for.
BROWNING: Right. Exactly. Yeah, just this idea that, you know, maybe it's better not to mention it to cause conflict. You know, whether in the community or in their own family, I think the same could hold true potentially for children in the church that might vote for Kamala Harris and maybe their parents will vote for Trump. And it's just something that they're not going to talk about and they're just going to go ahead in the voting booth and cast their ballot.
GILGER: Right. So let's talk about that because there's also a generational gap here, which is really interesting. You mentioned abortion in women. And what does the gap have to do with Gen Z? Is this about diversity? LGBTQ issues?
BROWNING: Yeah, it's, it's all of those I spoke with a couple of younger LDS voters and also some researchers and they said essentially that, you know, the church is just getting more diverse. It's getting younger, and there are younger members who have more liberal attitudes on issues like LGBT rights, divorce, abortion, things that may be traditionally skewed more conservative.
But these people have more liberal attitudes and they're potentially bringing their parents and grandparents along with them into this sort of what they view as a more modern view on society. And that might include rejecting Donald Trump in favor of Harris.
GILGER: OK. So let's talk about the potential impact of this, right? Like we talked a little bit about the top of the ticket and the shift we've seen there. What about down ballot races? There have also been events where you've seen LDS voters getting together to hear from somebody like Ruben Gallego who's been for a long time, a pretty liberal Democrat.
BROWNING: That's right. Well, first of all, I think it's worth pointing out how potentially significant this population could be in Arizona at the presidential level. Joe Biden won by just about 10,000 votes and there are nearly 500,000 members of the church in Arizona, although that number includes children. So yes, siphoning off even some small percentage of votes to the Democratic candidates could be significantly lower down the ballot. Yes, Ruben Gallego has made overtures to the LDS community. I know that the Harris campaign is working to do that.
So there is this sense that potentially, you know, if you're going to vote for Harris at the top of the ticket, is it possible that you could get them to vote Democratic lower down the ballot?
There's a sense from some of the more moderate and liberal LDS members I spoke with that Kari Lake perhaps shares some of the same personality traits with Donald Trump that they dislike and they might be voting for Gallego.
So, you know, it's hard to say because also there are plenty of LDS people that certainly still do support Donald Trump, they're going to vote Republican and maybe they're conflicted and they might leave the top of the ticket blank, but they might still vote Republican down the ticket just because that's what they're used to and they feel, you know, more comfortable with those sort of traditionally conservative values.
GILGER: Yeah. I think that's interesting. I want to ask you about John Giles here, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona. He came out in support of Harris, had come out in support of Biden before, he is a longtime Republican here in the state. Is there a John Giles effect in these communities? Did you hear about that from folks?
BROWNING: It's a great question. I, you know, I think to some degree it, it breaks down along partisan lines. You know, I spoke with some Republicans who said, oh, well, you know, John Giles, we already disliked him. You know, we already knew he was, he was liberal or, or, or whatever and, and people on the Democratic side or the, you know, the left were happy. So to some degree, you know, endorsements, how much do they matter? It’s hard to say.
But, but I do think, you know, it's, it's certainly relevant and important to have a prominent Republican in the state come out and, and so strongly back your campaign if you're Kamala Harris. You know, Mitt Romney even has not, has not done. So I think there's this sense, you know, from LDS voters that maybe I don't like Trump, but I'm not sure if I can really go ahead and, and back Kamala Harris, I might just not vote. I might leave the top top of the ticket blank.
So for him to come out so strongly, not just in opposition to Trump, but in support of Harris is significant. He spoke at the Democratic National Convention. I heard him there. He spoke at a Harris Walls rally in Arizona a couple weeks ago. And so it certainly doesn't hurt to have someone that's, you know, relatively prominent, especially in the East Valley be on your side.
