Most Utah residents are not signing on to Christian nationalism, the belief that the United States should be governed by a single Christian tradition. That resistance sets Utah apart from many Republican-led states, where those views are far more common, and highlights an unusual gap between the state's solidly conservative politics and how many locals think religion should factor into public life.
What the data says
According to PRRI, its American Values Atlas estimates that roughly one-third of Americans qualify as Christian nationalist "adherents" or "sympathizers," while a majority are skeptics or rejecters. The dataset includes state-level estimates that show where Christian nationalism is strongest and which demographic groups are most likely to embrace it. PRRI's analysis also links those attitudes to party identification, religious affiliation and media consumption.
How Utah compares
As reported by Axios, Utah has one of the lowest shares of residents holding Christian nationalist beliefs among red states, with fewer than one-third doing so. Axios and PRRI break down the partisan spread: about 56% of Republicans, 25% of independents and 17% of Democrats fall into the adherent-or-sympathizer categories. PRRI's most recent national sample included more than 22,000 adults interviewed between Feb. 18 and Dec. 8, 2025, with a margin of error of roughly b1 0.87 percentage points for the full sample.
LDS split and local context
The state's dominant faith is split down the middle: nearly half of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints qualify as adherents or sympathizers, while an equal share are skeptics or rejecters, The Salt Lake Tribune reported using PRRI data. That division complicates assumptions that Utah's LDS majority would uniformly back Christian nationalist ideas and helps explain why some high-profile culture-war measures receive a mixed reception at the Utah State Legislature.
What it could mean for policy
PRRI's report finds Christian nationalism correlates with favorable views of former President Donald Trump and with support for more restrictive positions on immigration, pluralism, and gender roles. Those same priorities show up in the policy conversation in Utah, and Axios notes lawmakers are advancing bills that would restrict access to benefits for undocumented immigrants and alter driving-privilege rules, even as most Utahns overall do not embrace Christian nationalist tenets. Political analysts say the question to watch is whether the ideology's supporters can turn minority views into durable state policy.
The takeaway for Utah: Christian nationalism is a politically potent minority, but it has not become a majority viewpoint in the state. Local political fights and intra-LDS debate will determine whether the ideology's influence grows or stays constrained in future policy debates.
