The past few decades have seen a significant change among United States voters. Many are basing their party affiliations on their religious views rather than their traditional political loyalties. The last national election revealed that this trend includes Catholics: those who are religiously active are moving away from the solidly Democratic voting patters that used to be their hallmark.

Aware of this, the Republican campaign designated Catholics as its key target constituency. And the Republican National Committee geared up its Catholic Task Force to identify religiously active Catholics in key target states and communicate with them regarding issues of personal interest to Catholics. Subsequently, among  the 42 percent of United States Catholics who say they attend mass as least once a week, Republicans garnered 55 percent of the Catholic votes.