---
title: "Candidate Preference by Religious Group, Late July Update"
description: "A new Pew Research Center poll finds that more voters say they have an unfavorable than favorable view of Mitt Romney. Barack Obama’s image remains, by comparison, more positive."
date: "2012-08-02"
authors:
  - name: "Joseph Liu"
    job_title: "Guest Contributor"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/08/02/candidate-preference-by-religious-group-late-july-update/"
categories:
  - "Election 2012"
  - "Politics & Policy"
  - "Religion"
  - "U.S. Elections & Voters"
---

# Candidate Preference by Religious Group, Late July Update

[![rp2012-report-short](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2013/01/RP2012-report-short5.png)](https://projects.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/religion/rp2012/)

Polling conducted July 16-26, 2012, by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that more voters say they have an unfavorable than favorable view of Mitt Romney. Barack Obama’s image remains, by comparison, more positive. And Obama continues to hold a sizable lead over Romney in the election contest, with 51% of registered voters saying they support Obama or lean toward him, while 41% support or lean toward Romney.

The poll was conducted among 2,508 adults (including 1,956 registered voters). The complete [report](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2012/08/02/romneys-personal-image-remains-negative/), which includes general election preference by [religion](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/08/8-2-12-Detailed-Tables.2.pdf) (PDF), is available on the [Pew Research Center for the People & the Press’ website](http://www.peoplepress.org/).