Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

A panel of researchers from the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics discussed the results of a survey aimed at gauging the voting tendencies among religious groups by splitting the groups in categories. The main categories were “Mainline Protestant”, “Evangelical Protestant, “Roman Catholic”, and “Religiously Unaffiliated”. One breakthrough discovery the panel found was that for the first time ever, more mainline Protestants (approximately one-fifth of the electorate) support the Democratic Party over the Republican Party.

According to the survey, Roman Catholics, who have been traditionally associated with the Democratic Party, are now split evenly between the two parties. There are also party identification gaps between Latino and non-Latino Catholics. Among Latino Catholics, 57 percent tend to be Democrats, while only 15 percent tend to be Republicans. Among non-Latino Catholics, the gap is much narrower. 41 percent tend to be Democrats, while 38 percent tend to be Republicans.

The category of “Religiously Unaffiliated” (atheists, agnostics, and unaffiliated believers) tend to young, male, single, and college graduates. Corwin Smidt, executive director of the Henry Institute, pointed out that although this group is a rapidly growing segment of the voting population (16.7 percent of the voting population), this group is the least likely to go to the polls. If Barack Obama can energize this group to turn out in large numbers and vote, then it will be a significant contribution to his campaign, Corwin said.

Evangelical Protestants remain the largest religious tradition founded within the American electorate, according to the survey. They are also the group most strongly associated with the Republican Party. Despite talk of John McCain’s “Evangelical problem”, the group does not appear to be abandoning McCain: 57 percent of Evangelicals support McCain. However, their support for McCain does not match the levels President George W. Bush had during the 2004 election.