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SALT LAKE CITY — During a fundraising visit in Salt Lake City last week, former President Donald Trump acknowledged that Latter-day Saints could help decide who wins the battleground state of Arizona. On Thursday, Trump's rival took her first formal step in targeting that same group of voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign rolled out a "Latter-day Saints for Harris-Walz" Arizona advisory committee Thursday, comprised of over 50 Latter-day Saints across the state. Several members of the committee are current or former Republicans, including both co-chairs: former Arizona Rep. Joel John and former Mesa Mayor Claudia Walters.
"I feel very strongly that I need to tell people that it's OK — and not just OK, it's great — to be a person of faith and be supporting Vice President Kamala Harris," Walters said during a launch event Thursday in Mesa.
The committee's formation is the first formal coalition by either campaign targeting Latter-day Saint voters this cycle. In 2020, the Trump campaign — alongside Turning Point USA chief operating officer Tyler Bowyer — organized a "Latter-day Saints for Trump" initiative, hosting a pair of rallies in the Phoenix area for Latter-day Saints.
But the Trump campaign has so far not made a formal push to win over Latter-day Saint voters this cycle. In July, the campaign launched a "Believers for Trump" initiative, and individuals close to the Trump campaign said all faith outreach would be funneled through that coalition. In recent weeks, though, the Trump campaign has made more targeted efforts to reach voters of faith, including by announcing a "Catholics for Trump" coalition and hiring Ben Carson as the campaign's National Faith Chairman.
Utah Republicans campaign for Trump
Last week, during a fundraising event in Salt Lake City, Trump spoke about the importance of Latter-day Saint votes in Arizona and asked Marlon Bateman — a former State Department official — to head up a "Latter-day Saints for Trump" coalition.
Bateman and Bowyer — who helped organize the 2020 coalition in Arizona — did not return requests for comment.
Utah Republican Party chair Rob Axson said hundreds of Utah volunteers will go to Arizona and Nevada to canvass for Trump.
Latter-day Saints have long been a reliably Republican voting bloc since the 1960s. In Utah, where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is headquartered and a majority of the population identifies as Latter-day Saint, a Democratic presidential nominee has not won since 1964.
But in 2016, Trump performed worse in Utah than any Republican in decades, bogged down by many Latter-day Saints' poor impression of his moral character. Some prominent Latter-day Saint Republicans — like Sen. Mitt Romney — have been outspoken critics of the former president. But in 2020, Trump coasted to victory in the state, and polls this year show Trump far ahead of Biden among the state's voters. In Arizona, Trump won a dominant 80% of Arizona Latter-day Saint voters in 2020, according to exit polls.
It is difficult to know how U.S. Latter-day Saints across the country feel about their 2024 options. Because Latter-day Saints only make up 2% of the U.S. population, they rarely make up a statistically significant sample in nationwide surveys. But enough data exists to suggest that Latter-day Saints could be undergoing a political shift: in one survey, conducted by the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life, they were more likely than any other U.S. religious group to say neither political party represents their views. In another, Latter-day Saints were the faith group "most resilient to political division and polarization."
There, the Harris campaign sees an opening. Some 2,000 individuals attended a "Latter-day Saints for Harris" Zoom call in August, organized by a grassroots group of Harris supporters and with the blessing of the Harris campaign. The Harris campaign's new head of faith outreach, Rev. Jen Butler, told Religious News Service she thinks Harris' message on religious freedom will resonate with Latter-day Saints. "I think we can engage them because we are the party of freedom," Butler said.
Harris' campaign invited John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, to speak at a Phoenix-area rally and at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Giles is a practicing Latter-day Saint.
Harris' pitch to Latter-day Saint Voters
Much of Thursday's "Latter-day Saints for Harris-Walz" event was focused on pitching Harris to a group of skeptical, lifelong Republicans. "You can be a member of our faith and vote for Vice President Harris," said John, a former Republican member of the Arizona Legislature.
Harris and Walz, Walters added, "are good people. They're people of integrity and have shown compassion toward all of God's children."
In Trump's orbit, there is little doubt that a majority of Latter-day Saints will cast their vote for the Republican nominee. "Latter-day Saints are good conservatives," said Layne Bangerter, an EPA official during the Trump administration. "To this point, he hasn't needed to organize (among Latter-day Saints). He knows we support him."
Harris' new group of Latter-day Saint Arizonans disagree. At Thursday's event, Walters said Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, his running mate, fail to "treat others with respect," while Harris is "spreading positivity and kindness. And that goes along with my values, which each one of us is a child of our Heavenly Parents who love us."
That extends to those who do not agree with her, Walters added: "I hope that we will not say unkind things about those who support Mr. Trump," she said.
