Decades ago, American Catholics were known as a pro-Democrat voting bloc, notably helping deliver the 1960 presidential election for fellow Catholic John F. Kennedy. In the years since, the Catholic vote has become more fractured, often leaning Democrat but rarely moving as a cohesive bloc. However, Catholics were instrumental in delivering Tuesday night’s election win to President-elect Donald Trump and have proven that, while they may still not quite be a bloc, a majority are now reliably pro-Republican voters.

According to Thursday morning exit polling published by The Washington Post and NBC News, American Catholics broke for Trump by an 18-point margin. An estimated 58% of American Catholics voted for Trump, while only 40% backed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Catholic voters were more evenly split in the 2020 election, with 50% backing Trump and 49% voting for his Democratic opponent Joe Biden, a self-described Catholic. This time around, Catholics not only swung more heavily in favor of Trump, but helped deliver him crucial swing states.

According to Fox News exit polling, Catholics in Georgia (54%) and North Carolina (58%) backed Trump, while Catholics in Arizona were more evenly split, with 49% backing Trump and 50% backing Harris. But in Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Catholics tipped the election in favor of Trump. Catholics account for nearly a fifth of Michigan’s population and 62% voted for Trump, against only 37% who backed Harris.

In Nevada, Catholics account for one quarter of the population and broke for Trump 51% to 46%. In Pennsylvania, Catholics make up 26% of the population and backed Trump by 56%. Catholics also make up nearly a quarter of the population in Wisconsin, where 59% of Catholics voted for Trump. In the end, Trump won all the swing states, in addition to the popular vote.

Clearly, the many Catholics who backed Biden in 2020 had changed their tune. Even before Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate, a survey discovered that swing state Catholics favored Trump (54%) over Biden (31%).

An Associated Press VoteCast released prior to election night predicted that Trump would only win 52% of Catholics and Harris would win 45%, yielding a seven-point difference. A September Pew Research Center survey anticipated an even smaller margin, with Trump still winning the Catholic vote at 52% but Harris taking a 47% share. Neither foresaw Trump winning the Catholic vote by an 18-point margin.

Ahead of the election, Catholic advocacy organizations began stumping for Trump. Groups like CatholicVote and the Catholic League launched ad campaigns centered on Harris’s record of opposing Catholic principles and even oppressing Catholics. In comments to The Washington Stand, Catholic League president Bill Donohue explained, “Catholics broke heavily for Trump not because Harris is rabidly pro-abortion — so is Biden, and he split the Catholic vote with Trump in 2020 — but because she is seen as a threat to religious liberty.”

Donohue noted, “When recently asked by NBC if she would allow religious exemptions with regard to her abortion policies, she shot it down quickly. There would be none.” He further explained that Harris “is associated with an administration which allowed the FBI to spy on mainline Catholics, and when she was a senator she badgered a nominee for the federal bench because he belonged to the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal group.”

He continued by noting that Catholics “object to males crashing female sports, and sharing locker rooms with them.” “And then there is the sleeper issue: transgenderism. She co-sponsored legislation that would require Catholic doctors and hospitals to perform sex-reassignment surgery.” Donohue added, “Her decision to stiff Cardinal Timothy Dolan by refusing to attend the Al Smith Dinner was the icing on the cake.”

As it turns out, Catholics have been leaving the Democratic Party ever since the 1960s and slowly coalescing around the GOP. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 82% of white American Catholics backed Democrat John F. Kennedy in 1960, and 78% supported his deputy, Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1964. By 1972, the majority (63%) of white Catholics had switched sides, voting for Republican Richard Nixon over Democrat George McGovern. While the Catholic vote would waver, by slim margins, from Republican to Democrat and back again over the next few years, it has stayed red more often than not, and has only grown redder over the past decade.

A majority of Catholics who self-identified as never attending Mass or only rarely attending Mass voted for Trump in 2016 (56%) and in 2020 (55%), while Catholics who attend Mass at least once a month voted for Trump in 2016 (55%) and by even higher margins in 2020 (62%). Among Catholics who attend Mass once a week, 64% backed Trump in both 2016 and 2020, while 73% of Catholics who attend Mass once a week or more often backed Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

For his part, Trump has pledged to uphold religious liberty in his second term and has pointed out the Biden-Harris administration’s poor treatment of American Catholics. “I don’t know how a Catholic can vote for the Democrats because they’re after the Catholics almost as much as they’re after me,” Trump said at an event for Christian voters. He asked, “How does a Catholic person vote for a Democrat with what they’re doing to Catholics? I just don’t get it.” Trump has also called Harris “the most anti-Catholic person ever to run for high office in the U.S.” and pledged to form a federal task force to investigate and eliminate anti-Christian bias in government agencies.