Catholic voters have always been a key voting group in every presidential election, and this year, the battle for their votes has gotten aggressive. Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Vice President Kamala Harris has been anti-Catholic.

While Harris has not said the same about Trump, she has sent a message to Catholic voters that her policies are in line with their social and political views and priorities. But experts say that it's not easy to pin a single label on the nation's Catholics.

“It's really interesting that the Catholic Church is probably one of the few places where you find people with different perspectives sitting together at Sunday Mass,” says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science.

Thompson says that, as a whole, Catholics have been voting more Republican in the last 44 years after abortion became a major campaign issue for the Christians as a whole.

But over those decades, she notes that the makeup of American Catholics has also changed as the number of non-white Catholics has grown. “It has changed the map a lot,” Thompson says. “Latino Catholics have risen in numbers in the South and in swing states like Arizona and have brought their own perspectives on their faith and their beliefs.”

Read more in the ABC News article, “American Catholic voters present complex opportunities for Trump, Harris: Academics.”