For decades, every presidential election year, Republicans and Democrats on the third Thursday in October could always be found in one place: the Al Smith charity dinner in New York.
The dinner has served as place for the presidential candidates to take a night off and poke fun at the political process. But not this year as Vice President Kamala Harris has elected to skip the event, the first presidential candidate to do so in 40 years.
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But for Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan who is the Archbishop of New York and will be hosting the dinner, Harris' decision to skip the event comes as a disappointment.
"Well, you know, we aren't used to this," Dolan told Scripps News. "The last one was 40 years ago. I pointed out that Walter Mondale went on to lose 49 states."
There are about 52 million Catholics in the United States, according to Pew Research. It's the country's largest religious denomination, with sizable congregations in important swing states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
And while surveys show more Catholics identify as Republican rather than Democrat, exit polls in 2020 found 52% of Catholics supported President Joe Biden — the country's second Catholic president. Those same exit polls showed 47% of Catholics supported former President Donald Trump.
This year, Trump appears to be doing better. A recent poll found him leading Harris 50-45 among Catholic voters in swing states.
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Harris' decision to not attend Thursday's dinner, political strategists say, will allow Trump to make another appeal to American Catholics — without being challenged.
As for Pope Francis, meanwhile, the global Catholic leader is encouraging American Catholics to vote this year, but hasn't endorsed either party or candidate. Instead, Francis is urging Catholics to "choose the lesser evil."
