While some conservative Catholics jumped on the ill-fated anyone-but-Trump bandwagon, rank-and-file Catholics have been happy to vote for him, helping Trump win decisive victories in heavily Catholic states like Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.
But a much smaller, although vastly more influential, faction of the religious right coalition may be permanently sidelined by the rise of Trump: the Catholic bishops. The bishops, both individually and in the persona of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have been critical to the GOP.
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