For the first time in five years, Catholic Republicans outnumber Catholic Democrats by a slight margin in the newly convened 114th United States Congress.
According to the Pew Research Center's Fact Tank, there are now 69 Catholic Republicans in the new Congress. Opposite them are 68 Republican Congressmen who are of the Catholic faith. This is a new trend from the previous six Congresses – in 2009, there were 98 Catholic Democrats in the House while there were only 37 Catholic Republicans in Congress.
While this shift could be attributed to the Republicans' steady gaining of seats in the House since 2011, GOP members who confess to be of the Catholic faith have also grown from 2011 to 2014, and have contributed to the Republican trending in Congress.
In addition, white Catholics in the United States have shown increased support for the Republican Party last year. In 2014, the number of white Catholics that support the Republicans stand at 53%.
By contrast, Pew reported the number of Catholics in the Democrat Congressmen has dropped. The percentage of Democrat Catholics in the House has dropped from 38 per cent to 36 per cent in the period between 2011 and 2014.
While white Catholics favour the Republican Party, the Pew Research Center stated that Hispanic Catholic Americans are more likely to favour the Democrat Party.
This growth, however, was not enough for Catholics to overtake the Protestants in Congress. Protestants make up 58 per cent of the total number of Congressmen, while Catholics only have a 32 per cent share in the total number of seats in the 114th Congress. This means that, for each group of ten Congressmen, three of these are Catholic.
On the other hand, the number of Catholics in the US Senate has remained steady since 2009. One-fifth of the seats won by the Republican Party are taken by Catholic Republicans.
