1. Split Up: Gen Z Is the Generation Most Divided by Gender
For The Hill, Claire Leibowitz reports on the political gender gap among Gen Z voters and how it could affect midterm elections in November. With President Donald Trump’s approval rating reaching new lows, PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman, Ph.D., said young voters may favor Democrats in November. Deckman told The Hill that young women are the most progressive age group, and lean left compared to their male counterparts, adding that “Gen Z has grown up in a fragmented media culture, and algorithms send young women and young men to different sites.” In a PRRI Spotlight Analysis, Deckman writes that the gender gap in Republican identity among younger Americans has grown from a 4-point gap in 2013, when 18% of young men and 14% of young women identified as Republican, to a 9-point gap (26% of young men vs. 17% of young women in 2024).
2. Religious Groups Ask Judge to Consider Contempt Over Undercover ICE Operation
At POLITICO, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney write that religious groups have asked a federal judge to hold the Department of Homeland Security in contempt after an undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was revealed to have brought a recording device into a church in Minnesota, in violation of a February court order that ruled that “immigration enforcement activity” cannot be held at or near certain places of worship. While the full scope of the investigation remains unclear, court records show that it also included surveilling the outside of the church and photographing cars in the church parking lot. PRRI finds that most Americans (81%) oppose “allowing the U.S. government to collect personal data and build a database of Americans who protest government actions,” with most Democrats (93%), independents (86%), and Republicans (65%) opposing government surveillance.
📢 The Morning Buzz is taking a break next week.
Don’t worry — we’ll be back with more news at the intersection of religion, culture, and politics on Monday, August 31.
3. Experts Raise Alarms Over Census Bureau Report Trump Is Touting on Noncitizen Voting
NPR reports that President Donald Trump is reviving claims of widespread noncitizen voting, citing a Census Bureau analysis with ties to the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. Experts say the report, which was not written by career civil servants at the Census Bureau, is questionable in both methodology and conclusions. Separately, The Washington Post writes that the Justice Department plans to send about 1,000 monitors to polling places this fall, prompting concern given Trump's past comments about Republicans "nationalizing" and "taking over" the vote. PRRI finds that most Americans (69%) disagree with the statement “If states cannot get voter fraud under control, President Trump should postpone the 2026 midterm elections for Congress,” compared with 26% who agree.
4. A ‘Nonbeliever’ in Congress Argues New View of Religion Is Gaining Ground on the Hill
At the Washington Post, Michelle Boorstein covers the recent release of No Prophets by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), which argues that Christian nationalism is the country’s most dangerous political movement. Huffman has been a vocal secular member of Congress, launching the Freethought Caucus to promote church-state separation. According to PRRI, half of white Christians (16% Adherents and 30% Sympathizers) and four in ten Christians of color (14% Adherents and 25% Sympathizers) qualify as Christian nationalists, compared with around one in ten non-Christians (3% Adherents and 10% Sympathizers) and unaffiliated Americans (2% Adherents and 8% Sympathizers). PRRI Senior Democracy Fellow Katherine Stewart recently spoke with Huffman about his journey from being raised in a devout Christian household to embracing humanism and his reflections on the role of Christian nationalism in the Jan. 6 insurrection and the universal values that can unite Americans across religious differences.
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Learn more in the Survey Report: Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas
I saw this gender gap when I was teaching religious studies at University. The young women were mostly very progressive, while many of the young men were the opposite.