Southern Baptists are included in President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for his new administration

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Three Southern Baptists are among President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for top positions in his new administration.

• Matt Gaetz, Trump’s controversial nominee for attorney general, is a member of First Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., a Southern Baptist congregation.

• Douglas Collins, the nominee for secretary of veterans affairs, is a former pastor, and military chaplain and has a master’s degree in divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

• Mike Huckabee, former pastor and Arkansas governor, has been nominated for ambassador to Israel.

Five of the announced top advisory role selections and the press secretary in the new Trump administration are Catholic, with all others identifying as Christian except Tulsi Gabbard, a Hindu, nominee for director of national intelligence, Lee Zeldin, nominee for Environmental Protection Agency administrator, who is Jewish, and Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who identifies as a secular Muslim. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, are Catholic, along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominee for secretary of health and human services, John Ratcliffe, nominee for CIA director, Elise Stefanik, nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, and Karoline Leavitt, who has been appointed White House press secretary.

Washington Post reported exit polls indicating that Trump increased the percentage of Catholic support by 9% compared to the 2020 election –  from 47% to 56%.

Christian evangelicals continued strong support for Trump in the 2024 election. In a survey of 120,000 voters by AP VoteCast, Trump captured the support of 8 in 10 white voters who identify as evangelical Christians, which makes up about 20% of the electorate.

Not all of Trump’s top picks have indicated what flavor of Christianity they identify with, but public records indicate the following:

• Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense (Christian)

• Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior (Methodist)

• Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy (Unknown)

• Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security (Evangelical Christian)

• Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff (Unknown)

• Sean P. Duffy, Secretary of Transportation (Unknown)

• Tom Homan, Border Czar (Unknown)

• Michael Waltz, National Security Adviser (Unknown)