Romney received as much support from weekly churchgoers as other Republican candidates have in recent elections. Nearly six-in-ten voters who say they attend religious services at least once a week voted for Romney (59%), while 39% backed Obama. Vote Choice by Religious AttendanceĪs in other recent elections, those who attend religious services most often exhibited the strongest support for the Republican presidential candidate. Three-quarters of Hispanic Catholics voted for Obama, and Catholics as a whole were evenly divided in 2012 (50% voted for Obama, while 48% backed Romney). Nearly six-in-ten white Catholics (59%) voted for Romney, up from 52% who voted for McCain in 2008. White Catholics, by contrast, swung strongly in the Republican direction relative to 2008. This is virtually identical to the 2008 election, when 55% of white mainline Protestants voted for McCain and 44% backed Obama. Among white mainline Protestants in the exit poll, 54% voted for Romney, while 44% supported Obama. (Exit poll data on Mormons was unavailable for 20.)Ĭompared with religiously unaffiliated and Jewish voters on the left and white evangelicals and Mormons on the right, Catholics and white mainline Protestants were more evenly divided. Romney received about the same amount of support from Mormons that Bush received in 2004. Mormon voters were also firmly in Romney’s corner nearly eight-in-ten Mormons (78%) voted for Romney, while 21% voted for Obama. Bush did in 2004 (79%) and more support from evangelicals than McCain did in 2008 (73%). Romney received as much support from evangelical voters as George W. Black Protestants also voted overwhelmingly for Obama (95%).Īt the other end of the political spectrum, nearly eight-in-ten white evangelical Protestants voted for Romney (79%), compared with 20% who backed Obama. Both of these groups have long been strongly supportive of Democratic candidates in presidential elections. Compared with 2008, support for Obama ticked downward among both Jews and religiously unaffiliated voters in the exit polls, though these declines appear not to be statistically significant. Religiously unaffiliated voters and Jewish voters were firmly in Obama’s corner in 2012 (70% and 69%, respectively). But the basic religious contours of the 2012 electorate resemble recent elections – traditionally Republican groups such as white evangelicals and weekly churchgoers strongly backed Romney, while traditionally Democratic groups such as black Protestants, Hispanic Catholics, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated backed Obama by large margins. Obama’s margin of victory was much smaller than in 2008 when he defeated John McCain by a 53% to 46% margin, and he lost ground among white evangelical Protestants and white Catholics. In his re-election victory, Democrat Barack Obama narrowly defeated Republican Mitt Romney in the national popular vote (50% to 48%) 1.
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