How Mormons Could Be Kamala Harris’ Secret Weapon in Arizona

Traditionally conservative members of the Church of Latter-day Saints in Arizona are being turned off from former President Donald Trump, in part because of his language around immigrants.
With around 400,000 Mormons in the battleground state—roughly 6 percent of its population—both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have sought to win them over in the hope of securing Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes, but the key issue of immigration has become divisive.
Tyler Montague, a political consultant with the Public Integrity Alliance and a LDS member, told Newsweek that while many members of the church will vote for Trump, a growing number will either leave their presidential vote blank or swing all the way to Harris.
He pointed to LDS’ immigrant-friendly attitude, highlighted by the missionary programs many young Mormons take part in.
“A lot of them are in Latin America, a lot in Africa, Asia, so you have people exposed to these other cultures and other languages and they develop understanding and empathy,” Montague said. “So, you have a group that’s sympathetic toward immigrants, legal or otherwise.”
The Arizonan said that Trump’s rhetoric on immigration—promising mass deportations and characterizing migrants as criminals or those stealing jobs—did not sit well with those who had connections to countries where immigrants were from, or who worked and lived alongside them in their communities.
The Harris campaign has sought to tread a line between tightening border security, while also avoiding demonizing migrants writ large.
The LDS community in Arizona has voiced its opposition to anti-immigrant legislation in the past, including legislation in 2010 known as the “show me your papers” bill, which the church rejected parts around enforcement.
Some Evangelical Christians have also expressed discomfort around the lack of empathy for refugees and immigrants within the GOP, as Newsweek reported earlier in October, though the voting bloc is still expected to go for Trump by wide margins.
Montague told Newsweek that discomfort is going to matter among a group that sees voting as its civic duty, which could swing results in a state which was decided on around 10,000 votes in 2020.
“It’s not just the immigration issue. The culture of the church, the culture of Christ-like service-style leadership is just in contrast with the braggadocio style of Donald Trump,” Montague said. “That’s off-putting.
“The thing that keeps people in his camp, there are plenty of people that don’t like him, but they’re turned off by the abortion issue, which Kamala Harris is touting.”
Mormon support across the U.S. for Republican candidates has dropped in recent decades, according to the Pew Research Center in 2016, with George W. Bush receiving 80 percent support in 2004, compared to 61 percent for Trump in 2016.
That does not mean those votes are automatically going to the Democratic Party, though, with some feeling issues like abortion leave them with no viable presidential candidate.
The Arizona Harris-Walz campaign launched the Latter-day Saints for Harris-Walz Advisory Committee in September, in an effort to win them over.
“Members of the Latter-day Saints Church and people of faith across Arizona and the country are recognizing that Vice President Kamala Harris shares their values. She will represent bipartisanship, strengthen our democracy and protect the will of the people and the rule of law,” the Reverend Jennifer Butler, Harris Campaign National Interfaith Engagement Director, said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, more and more people are heeding the warning of those closest to Donald Trump, who are adamant that he is unfit, unstable, and seeking unchecked power to roll back our freedoms and control our daily lives with his Project 2025 agenda.”
Montague pointed to high-profile LDS members who could sway members of the church, including Mitt Romney, the senator from Utah who ran against Barack Obama in 2012, and former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers. Both Romney and Bowers have openly voiced their opposition to Trump.
The Trump campaign told Newsweek that Harris and the Democratic Party had abandoned the Mormon community, however, and attacked the freedom of religion.
“Their silence on key issues vital to Mormon values has been deafening. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have used government agencies as activist tools to target religious organizations, continually failed to acknowledge God in public settings, and allowed progressive policies to erode traditional values,” Halee Dobbins, RNC AZ Comms Director, said in an emailed statement.
“In contrast, President Trump has consistently stood with believers by protecting religious institutions, appointing constitutionalist Justices, and defending Christian values nationally and abroad. He has made it a priority to protect religious communities, not fight against them.”
Updated 10/31/24 4:25 p.m ET: This article was updated with a statement from the Reverend Jennifer Butler.
Updated 10/31/24 4:40 p.m ET: This article was updated with a statement from Halee Dobbins.