Posted on 11/06/2008 7:06:20 AM PST by Alex Murphy
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- Evangelicals and other Protestant voters appear to have continued their party voting preferences in the Presidential election from recent years, according to exit polls released following Tuesday's voting.
Exit polling released through CNN appears to have confirmed pre-election polls, with significant gaps between the candidates' support among voters categorized by both frequency of church attendance and religious affiliation. In the exit polling, White Protestant voters went 65 percent for McCain as did 52 percent of White Catholics. Overall, those Christians who attended any church on a weekly basis went for McCain by 55 percent, while Protestants who attended church on a weekly basis went for McCain by 65 percent.
The most decisive gap was amongst those voters who described themselves as White Evangelical/Born-Again. This group went 74 percent for McCain while 24 percent went for Obama, roughly mirroring their preferences from the 2004 Presidential Election.
IRD President James Tonkowich commented:
"Aside from race, the so-called 'pew gap' continues to be the largest difference between the different candidates' supporters.
"The Obama campaign made a strong effort to reach Evangelical voters this year, and those voters no doubt appreciated the attention and respect they received. That being said, their final decision at the top of the ticket was strikingly similar to the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns.
"Frequency of church attendance seems to trump religious affiliation in many instances. White Protestant Christians voted by strong margins for Senator McCain, regardless of if they described themselves as 'Born Again.'
"Among Evangelicals, exit polls show little improvement in support for Obama over John Kerry, and Obama did less well than Bill Clinton, who attracted over one-third of Evangelicals in his campaigns.
"Despite some Evangelical leaders' attempts to shift attention from traditional social issues to what they term a 'broadening agenda', there has been no significant difference in Evangelical support between the 2004 election and the 2008 election."
I've assembled the following chart from the above numbers, and from earlier threads I've posted. While some of these numbers have fluctuated from source to source, so far they haven't swung by more than 2%.
75% McCain, 25% Obama - [White Born Again ***] Evangelicals*
65% McCain, xx% Obama - White Protestants**
62% McCain, 35% Obama - State of Utah
54% McCain, 44% Obama - Weekly church-goers
51% McCain, 49% Obama - White Catholics*
xx% McCain, 53% Obama - Monthly church-goers
45% McCain, 54% Obama - Catholics
xx% McCain, 59% Obama - Semi-annual church-goers
38% McCain, 61% Obama - Occasional churchgoers
xx% McCain, 68% Obama - Don't attend church 21% McCain, 78% Obama - American Jews
* Note that Fox News' demographic breakdown lists White Catholics as 52% McCain, 47% Obama, agrees with Evangelicals as 75% McCain but does not provide a percentage of Evangelicals supporting Obama, and does not give numbers for any other groups.
** Christian Nedwswire did not provide voting numbers for Obama.
*** Christian Newswire further defines this category as "White Born Again Evangelicals." Other news sources reported roughly the same percentage as just "Evangelicals".
Sources:
The Awesome Blue God -- How Obama Forged A New Faith Coalition
Exit polls: 78% of Jews voted for Obama
Utah's red loses some of its luster
With the Help of Catholics…Obama’s Victory
Obama's Religious Appeal: Still Missing Evangelicals - which TIME renamed as Obama: Bringing (Some) Evangelicals In
Results! Evangelicals
The Evangelical Electoral Map
That doesn’t explain why my heavily Baptist precinct went Obama. We are only 18K Catholics here.
Just about everyone here is Baptist.
I don't want you to divulge any personal info, but check out the state-by-state interactive map in this thread. An earlier thread reported demographics which showed self-identified-but-nominal Catholics clustering in regions that vote Democrat. I have no trouble believing that there might be clusters of nominal Protestants who vote Democrat as well, and the state map should show it (when the county-by-county maps come out, they should be even more illustrative).
Is it predominantly Black?
You should say Palin instead of McCain. That was my vote. Now I am mad as an old wet hen at the McCain staffers stabbing her in the back.
“Is it predominantly Black?”
Oh? Is there a difference between Black Baptists and White Baptists?
Nevermind.
I believe Jimmy Carter quit one Baptist church and is attending another that is more “tolerant”. Enough said.
Did you forget the sarcasm tag, or are you a troll?
LOL!
Is there a term “PINO?”
It's spelled 'apostate'.
there is in voting for a black man for president.
So Evangelicals in Name Only voted for Obama too, correct?
Heh.
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