Haven’t read much about this up to now, but apparently among Catholic voters, Trump is getting clobbered. Part of this is that many Hispanic voters are Catholic. But as this article points out, Trump’s problems with Catholics goes well beyond just those who are also Hispanic:
The article mentions folks with Irish ancestry who are not so many generations removed from immigrant origins. This is also true of millions of Italian and Polish immigrants (and others, of course), also heavily Catholic populations, to say the least.
Well, I can’t speak more than anecdotally, but my older Irish relatives are horrified by Trump. In part it’s his whole asshole demeanor, but the scapegoating-immigrants aspect is a huge factor.
So even though Trump is not targeting Irish or Italians or Poles, I wouldn’t be surprised if, as the article suggests, his immigrant-scapegoating is a significant factor in his poor standing among Catholic voters.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of other reasons for Catholics (and everyone else) to reject Trump, and in most cases it’s probably the whole Trump package that’s being rejected. But his immigrant-hating rhetoric is a pretty important and noticeable feature of that package, and immigration is a big part of the history and experience of many American Catholics so I suspect it’s a major factor.