Exit poll data from the 2014 midterm elections finds the GOP made inroads among some religious constituencies that traditionally have not been as supportive of Republican candidates.
Obama’s margin of victory in the 2012 popular vote was smaller than in 2008. But the religious contours of the electorate were similar to 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.
Santorum won narrow victories in both the Alabama and Mississippi Republican primaries, but exit polling shows there was no clear winner among white born-again/evangelical voters in either state.
Mitt Romney won the Arizona primary by a large margin and secured a narrow victory in the Michigan primary. In both states, his support among born-again/evangelical voters was weaker than among non-evangelicals, continuing the pattern from previous primaries and caucuses in other states.
Data from exit or entrance polling in the seven states where it has been conducted for GOP primaries and caucuses show that Mitt Romney’s fortunes among white born-again/evangelical voters have fluctuated from state to state. He has received less support from evangelicals than from non-evangelicals in every contest for which data are available.
Exit polls from Super Tuesday primaries show that Mitt Romney continues to struggle among evangelicals, and Rick Santorum is yet to win among Catholics in any state where exit polling was conducted.
A Pew Forum analysis of National Election Pool exit poll data reported by CNN shows that Republican gains among religious groups parallel the party’s broad-based gains among the overall electorate and white voters in particular.
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