By PETER SMITH

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Nationally, Catholic voters were tightly divided in the last presidential election. This year, they will likely make up at least a quarter of the electorate in the crucial state of Pennsylvania and thus play a key role in deciding the overall outcome.

There was a seesaw effect in the state. Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by nearly 44,000 votes in 2016; Joe Biden defeated Trump by 80,000 votes in 2020.

John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, said he believes Biden, an Irish-American Catholic who regularly attends services, is connected to some Catholics as one of their own.

“I don’t think most working-class Catholics thought Biden was a perfect candidate, but he was one of them,” said Fea, who studies the interplay between religion and politics.

Now Trump, a non-denominational Christian, is back at the top of the Republican ticket, and J.D. Vance, a Catholic, is his running mate.

Democrats have a non-Catholic ticket headed by Kamala Harris, who is Black and South Asian. Baptist tradition He has a strong social justice orientation and is Tim Walz’s running mate. white lutheran.

Fea said some voters in the counties around Scranton, where Biden was born, may have voted for him in 2020 because of his Catholic connection, but not Harris.

“You could argue that the way these counties are doing, so is Pennsylvania, so is the nation,” Fea said.

Nikki Bruni of Pittsburgh, an ardent opponent of abortion, says she could never vote for Harris. Trump has the vote, even though he fears the GOP will back away from its traditionally staunch opposition.

“I considered not voting, but Pennsylvania is a swing state,” said Bruni, who runs a local anti-abortion group, Those Who Care About the Unborn Child. “I must do whatever I can morally to prevent evil from taking full control.”

There is a similar sense of urgency for Catholics who support Harris; In a state where more than a quarter of voters are Catholic in 2020, the entire election may depend on a handful of co-religionists.

A group called Catholics Vote for the Common Good recently put up billboards around Pittsburgh and Erie, urging Catholics to consider not just the abortion issue but a range of vital concerns in Catholic social teaching.

“If you’re going to be pro-life, you have to be more than anti-abortion,” said Kevin Hayes, the group’s Pennsylvania president. “Immigration has a pro-life component. Healthcare has a pro-life component. “There is a pro-life component to providing adequate support to young families and young mothers with children.”

He also attacked Trump with his verbal attacks on the judicial system and called out critics, saying: enemies within ” poses a threat to democracy.

Although both campaigns highlight the Hispanic Catholic vote, most of Pennsylvania’s Catholic population comes from white European immigrants, many of whom worked in mines and factories during the state’s industrial heyday. Their numbers have diminished due to the decline of industry and scandals in the church, but many still survive; their legacy is marked by bell towers and onion domes across the state.

“This demographic should not be ignored,” said Hayes, who was among Catholics urging the Harris campaign to pay more attention to them.

To be clear, there is no “Catholic vote” as there might have been in past generations when Catholics were expected to support their vote as a voting bloc.

But there are also Catholic voters, their numbers are very large.