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Poll finds evangelicals vote in both parties
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By Bob Watson
bwatson@newstribune.com
Americans who think all evangelical Christians are conservative, Republican voters are wrong, according to a new Zogby International poll reported this week.
Released Monday, the poll involved telephone surveys of voters taken last Tuesday and Wednesday in Missouri and Tennessee - both Super Tuesday presidential primary states.
The poll said 34 percent of the Missourians who described themselves as white evangelical Christians voted in last week's Democratic primary, while 66 percent took GOP ballots.
Katie Barge, a spokeswoman with the Washington, D.C.-based group, Faith in Public Life, which helped pay for the poll, noted: “So far, media organizations and pollsters are relying on an outdated script, by treating evangelicals as a monolithic voting bloc.
“This year, we have the exit polls - sponsored by the major networks, CNN, Fox and The Associated Press - providing data for nearly all post-election analysis. But there's a problem - they're only asking Republican primary voters whether they consider themselves ‘born again' or ‘evangelical' Christians.”
Using the secretary of state's total vote counts, the pollsters estimated that a total of 160,000 white evangelical Christians took Democratic ballots.
And 54 percent of those voted for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, compared with only 37 percent for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
“If you look at the Democratic primary side, that (160,000 is) more voters than all African-American voters, more voters than all voters over 65 and more voters than those who said the Iraq War was the most important thing in their vote,” said Robert P. Jones, an author who also is an expert and consultant on religion and politics.
He told reporters in a telephone conference call Monday: “Contrary to conventional wisdom, white evangelicals are really quite important to the Democratic vote - something you wouldn't know by the way the exit polls have been conducted.”
And the Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a large Orlando, Fla., church and a former Christian Coalition president, added: “There's a huge emerging constituency in the evangelical movement that are these ‘moral voters' (who) are much more independent and not likely to respond to the party machinery.
“They're likely to address issues directly out of what Jesus would really care about.”
Jones said several recent studies indicate a majority of white, evangelical Christian voters are not necessarily as conservative as they generally have been portrayed.
“One-fifth of evangelicals are, actually, progressive,” he said, while “one-third of evangelicals are moderate and one-half are conservative - even if you measure that across a number of social issues. ...
“A lot of research has shown that evangelicals are not monolithic, despite the way that they're painted, often, in the media.”
Released Monday, the poll involved telephone surveys of voters taken last Tuesday and Wednesday in Missouri and Tennessee - both Super Tuesday presidential primary states.
The poll said 34 percent of the Missourians who described themselves as white evangelical Christians voted in last week's Democratic primary, while 66 percent took GOP ballots.
Katie Barge, a spokeswoman with the Washington, D.C.-based group, Faith in Public Life, which helped pay for the poll, noted: “So far, media organizations and pollsters are relying on an outdated script, by treating evangelicals as a monolithic voting bloc.
“This year, we have the exit polls - sponsored by the major networks, CNN, Fox and The Associated Press - providing data for nearly all post-election analysis. But there's a problem - they're only asking Republican primary voters whether they consider themselves ‘born again' or ‘evangelical' Christians.”
Using the secretary of state's total vote counts, the pollsters estimated that a total of 160,000 white evangelical Christians took Democratic ballots.
And 54 percent of those voted for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, compared with only 37 percent for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
“If you look at the Democratic primary side, that (160,000 is) more voters than all African-American voters, more voters than all voters over 65 and more voters than those who said the Iraq War was the most important thing in their vote,” said Robert P. Jones, an author who also is an expert and consultant on religion and politics.
He told reporters in a telephone conference call Monday: “Contrary to conventional wisdom, white evangelicals are really quite important to the Democratic vote - something you wouldn't know by the way the exit polls have been conducted.”
And the Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a large Orlando, Fla., church and a former Christian Coalition president, added: “There's a huge emerging constituency in the evangelical movement that are these ‘moral voters' (who) are much more independent and not likely to respond to the party machinery.
“They're likely to address issues directly out of what Jesus would really care about.”
Jones said several recent studies indicate a majority of white, evangelical Christian voters are not necessarily as conservative as they generally have been portrayed.
“One-fifth of evangelicals are, actually, progressive,” he said, while “one-third of evangelicals are moderate and one-half are conservative - even if you measure that across a number of social issues. ...
“A lot of research has shown that evangelicals are not monolithic, despite the way that they're painted, often, in the media.”
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chi-town wrote on Feb 22, 2008 5:15 PM: