Arizona’s Latter-day Saints weigh faith, party when voting in governor’s race

Arizona’s race for governor puts two members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on opposite tickets, and church members are saying faith, not party, will decide their vote.

Republican nominee U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs is a member of the Latter-day Saints church. So is former Mesa Mayor John Giles, the running mate of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

The church reports 442,094 members in Arizona, about 6% of the state’s population.

‘Reluctant Republicans’

Arizona’s Latter-day Saint voters have long leaned Republican, but political scientist Ryan Burge says many are now “reluctant Republicans.”

Burge’s analysis of national survey data shows how far that support has swung.

Nationally, 84% of Latter-day Saints voted for Republican Mitt Romney, a member of the church, in the 2012 presidential election. Four years later, Donald Trump won just 52%.

Many Latter-day Saints in 2016 backed independent Evan McMullin, a church member who drew more Latter-day Saint votes than Democrat Hillary Clinton.

With no major third-party option in 2020 or 2024, Trump rebounded to 66% both times.

Over the same period, the share of church members identifying as Republican fell from about 75% to 58%, Burge found.

The McMullin vote, Burge said, showed that many members are “somewhat uncomfortable with the current state of the Republican Party.”

Even so, most still back Republicans.

“A lot of them are sort of holding their nose, voting for Trump,” Burge said.

Faith carries unusual weight for these voters because the church asks so much of its members, he said, enough to shape their votes as much as partisan media does.

“Latter-day Saints [is] a very high-intensity religion, high-commitment religion,” Burge said. “You can’t sort of be a halfway Latter-day Saint. You’re either all in or you’re all out, which makes me believe that they’re really a faith category.”

Latter-day Saint voters put faith over party

Church leaders have urged members to look beyond the party label. A 2023 First Presidency letter warned that voting a straight ticket without studying candidates is “a threat to democracy.”

Jane Andersen, a lifelong Republican from Gilbert and Arizona director of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, said tax policy and local control once drove her votes. Now, she said, a candidate’s respect for democratic norms comes first. Her group does not endorse candidates.

“If someone is running for office and they’re not willing to support democratic processes, then that is going to be a huge reason for me to really question if they should receive my vote,” she said.

Andersen said she is troubled by Arizona Republicans who promoted false claims about the 2020 election and now try to “gloss over” that history.

Biggs objected to counting Arizona’s electoral votes in January 2021, calling it a stand for election integrity.

“You do not earn my vote simply because you have a certain letter next to your name,” Andersen said. “I’m going to vote based on your character.”

Annie Packard Lewis, a Latter-day Saint, left the GOP about four years ago as she watched the party grow more divisive. The teacher and mother of six is now an independent.

“I feel like it was maybe traditional for me to be a Republican in the LDS culture,” Lewis said. “It wasn’t a requirement of my faith for me to become … a Republican. My requirement was for me to be Christlike and to act compassionate to everyone.”

Lewis said she often turns off political news so her children won’t see it. This year, she said, she is looking for leaders “who can work across the divide in a peaceful manner.”

As a lifelong Democrat, Kaylee Gleave is in the minority among Latter-day Saints. She said shared faith, not party, is what connects her with other women in the church.

“I worship God. I am a believer. I don’t worship a party. I don’t worship candidates,” said Gleave, who has a background in social services. Church teachings on caring for the marginalized and being good stewards of the earth guide her vote, she said, and those values cross party lines.

A faith in transition

That commitment remains strong, but it is shifting.

A Pew Research Center study released in September found Latter-day Saints are still among the most religious Americans, with about 7 in 10 saying religion is very important in their lives. That’s down from 83% in 2007, and the share who pray daily fell from 82% to 73% over the same period.

Fewer young people are staying in the church.

About 54% of Americans raised as Latter-day Saints still identify with the faith as adults, down from 70% in 2007. More than a quarter now say they have no religion.

Members’ views on some social issues have also moved.

Nearly half now say homosexuality should be accepted by society, almost double the share in 2007.

Views on abortion have barely changed.

Nearly 7 in 10 church members, 69%, say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, up 4 percentage points since 2007, according to Pew. Meanwhile, Americans overall have grown somewhat more likely to say abortion should be legal.

Pew found about three-quarters of Latter-day Saints still identify with or lean toward the Republican Party.

The survey was conducted mostly in 2023, before the last presidential election.

Economy could move young voters

Burge said 2026 is “not a particularly religious election,” with abortion and other social issues taking a back seat. “It’s really the economy, inflation, gas prices, egg prices, milk prices,” he said.

He expects young Latter-day Saints, who warmed to Trump in 2024, to swing the most in the Nov. 3 election.

“The cost of everything is what’s killing them worse than middle-aged voters or retired voters,” he said.

Because Latter-day Saints are less uniformly Republican than other white Christian groups, Burge sees them as an early signal. If they shift even slightly left, he said, other white Christian voters likely will, too.

For Andersen, candidates will have to earn her vote.

“You don’t simply get to get it because you might use the Constitution as like a dog whistle,” she said. “I want to see how you follow the Constitution, not just that you reference it.”

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