Election 2026: Issues, Partisanship, and Ideology Among Catholics

As Catholics go to the polls for Midterm Elections, the cost of living and inflation (73%) are at the top of the list of the most important issues facing the country. Following this is unemployment (45%); poverty, hunger, and homelessness (43%); immigration (41%); and fuel/oil prices (39%). 

 

 

Overall the Catholic electorate is evenly split between identifying as Democrats (34%), Republicans (32%), and independents (34%). However, political party affiliation patterns vary by race and ethnicity. Hispanic Catholics are 43% Democrat as are 54% of Black Catholics compared to 28% affiliation among non-Hispanic White Catholics.

 

 

Catholics are also relatively evenly divided by political ideology with 33% being liberal, 31% conservative, and 36% middle of the road.

 

  

These results are from a national survey conducted between May 15, 2026 and June 30, 2026. There were a total of 2,401 self-identified Catholic respondents ages 18 or older. CARA)partnered with Qualtrics to field this survey. Qualtrics utilized their opt-in sampling panels for the study. The survey was taken online and was available in English and Spanish. Self-identified Catholics were sampled randomly from these panels. Quotas and weighting for generation and ethnicity were used to ensure the sample is representative to the adult Catholic population relative to the most recent estimates in the General Social Survey (GSS). The religion of the respondents was verified with the first survey question. Respondents received incentives for their participation. Responses were screened and quality checked for those who did not complete the survey or who responded too quickly without considering questions. Because the survey did not use probability-based sampling a traditional margin of error cannot be calculated. When opt-in panels are used a credibility interval is used. For this survey this is ±2.0 percentage points for the total sample. The full results of the survey are available here. 

Bishop of The Cloud?

Data Centers in Ashburn, VA

A Catholic diocesan bishop is responsible for all of Christ’s faithful in his territory whether they reside there or are visiting, according to Canon Law. He is instructed to act with humanity toward those who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church. He is also “to consider the non-baptized as commended to him in the Lord, so that the Charity of Christ, of which the Bishop must be a witness to all, may shine also on them” (Can. 383). He is also required to visit the whole of his diocese every five years.

On these visits, some bishops may have noticed cranes and new buildings sprouting up. Some bishops more than others. These very real new structures are what’s casually referred to as “The Cloud.” Who can claim to be Bishop of this Cloud? For now, it likely is the Most Rev. Michael F Burbidge, the Bishop of Arlington in Virginia.   

Virginia has two Catholic dioceses and at least 319 operational data centers. The epicenter for these is in the city of Ashburn about 35 miles outside of Washington, DC. Ashburn was built as a planned suburban community in the 1980s. In the 1990s non-governmental internet infrastructure and fiber-optic cables were built up in Northern Virginia suburbs and with that AOL decided to locate its headquarters in Ashburn. Equinix soon helped establish Ashburn as a key point of traffic for global networks. In the 2010s, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google all joined the data center build out and a master planned suburban community became “Data Center Alley.” 

The IM3 Open Source Data Center Atlas indicated there are 309 operational data centers in the boundaries of the Diocese of Arlington. That is more than one in five of all U.S. centers and more than most other countries. As of the publication of this post, China had a total of 369 and India 296.   

If you are on the East Coast of the U.S. and are sending a query to an AI model there’s a good chance it’s headed for data centers in the Diocese of Arlington. The map below shows the most recent known numbers of operating data centers by state in the U.S. according to the IM3 Open Source Data Center Atlas (some states are too small for labels: NJ 53, CT 5, MA 3, DE 0, and HI 0).

The next map shows the number of operational and planned data centers by state according to Data Center Map at the time of this post being researched/published (some states are too small for labels: NJ 67, CT 52, MA 42, DE 18, and HI 9). While Northern Virginia remains the major hub, the arch/dioceses of Texas are gaining ground fast.

With the recent publication of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Catholics have been called to consider the implications of the development of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Pope Leo XIV writes:

“…[T]echnology is not simply a tool. When it becomes the standard by which everything is judged, it begins to dictate what matters and what can be discarded, reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency. This paradigm has spread rapidly in recent years, fueled in part by the expansion of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, nanotechnology, robotics and biotechnology. In themselves, these innovations can greatly serve integral human development and the care of our common home. Yet precisely because of their power, they can also hasten the expansion of the technocratic paradigm and therefore require a new spiritual, ethical and political framework. More power does not necessarily imply something better.”

He begins his conclusion with the following: 

“‘Let each builder choose with care how to build’ (1 Cor 3:10). With these words, Saint Paul encouraged the Christians of Corinth to preserve unity. Dear brothers and sisters, we have reflected on the world we are building, and we asked ourselves what it means to safeguard the human person in the era of artificial intelligence.”

The bishops of dioceses where these data centers have been and are being built are the Church’s eyes and ears over what the AI and technology companies are choosing to construct. 

Pope Leo XIII was instrumental in navigating the Church through the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th Century. Rerum Novarum addressed the rights and duties of both capital and labor.  Pope Leo XIV may have began the work to do something similar in the 21st Century as the AI/Automation Revolution begins with his aforementioned encyclical. 

Being a “Bishop of the Cloud” may be an important individual on the ground for the Church as the changes ahead unfold. The current transition involves both environmental questions/care for creation and challenges to human dignity/dignity of work. These “clouds” are most notably now forming over bishops in Virginia, Texas, California, Illinois, and Ohio. 

Recalling the Black Catholic Bishops in the United States

This post was researched and written by CARA Research Assistant Ali Mumbach, M.A. 

This month the Archdiocese of Washington celebrated the installation Mass of Bishop Robert Boxie III and Bishop Gary Studniewski. The ordination of Bishop Robert Boxie was of particular recognition as he is the first African American to be ordained a bishop in almost a decade. He is also now the youngest bishop in the United States. Members of the local and national Black Catholic community showed up in numbers for the momentous occasion. With receiving the newest Black bishop, it is appropriate to recall the small but mighty group of Black bishops that he joins.

During the 237 years that Catholic dioceses have existed in the United States, there have been a total of 29 Black bishops. The first African American to be ordained a bishop was Most Reverend James August Healy, brother to Georgetown University President Fr. Patrick Healy S.J., in 1875.  As a mixed race person, Bishop Healy was “passé blanc”, meaning that his complexion was light enough that he (and his brothers) passed for white.  

Bishop James Healy, Portland, ME

Due to racism in the nation and in the Church, the next Black bishop was not ordained for nearly a century. In New Orleans, LA in 1965, Most Reverend Harold R. Perry, SVD was ordained to the episcopate.

Ordination of Bishop Harold Perry, SVD

Bishop Harold Perry’s ordination began a trend of appointments coming out of Louisiana. The Bayou state far exceeds others with a third of the Black bishops hailing from the state (four Black bishops were born outside the U.S.). Not surprisingly, the areas of the country with the highest concentrations of Black Catholics produced the men that would one day serve as bishops in the Catholic Church, as shown in the map below.

Data from Catholic Hierarchy

Following Vatican II, the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and the Black Catholic movement of the ’80s and ’90s, there came a noticeable increase in Black priests appointed to bishop. The number of Black bishops doubled in size between 1975 and 1980 (from 3 to 6), and again between 1980 and 1990 (from 6 to 13). Finally having some seats at the table, it was in 1979 that the bishops wrote the first pastoral letter addressing racism in “Brothers and Sisters to Us.” In this letter, the bishops called racism an evil in society and the Church. Throughout the decade of the ’90s, there were a total of 18 Black men that served within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The figure below presents the number of Black bishops throughout the decades.

Since that time, due to a combination of aging members and lack of new appointments, the number of Black bishops has steadily declined. By 2025, there were half as many active Black bishops in the Conference as there were during the peak in 1990. As of 2026, with the retirement of Bishop Roy Campbell and appointment of Bishop Robert Boxie, there are currently five active Black bishops out of 273 total bishops. This represents 2% of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, while Black Catholics make up 5% of adult Catholics in the U.S. The figure below demonstrates the percentage of Black bishops relative to total bishops from 1875 up to present day. As the Catholic church in the U.S. continues to grow in diversity, those who shepherd the faithful should reflect those in the pews, so as to better understand the perspectives and experiences of those under their care.