Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Election 2012

  • report

    Little Voter Discomfort with Romney’s Mormon Religion

    A new Pew Research Center poll finds that voters have limited awareness of Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith and Barack Obama’s religion. And there is little evidence to suggest that concerns about the candidates’ respective faiths will have a meaningful impact in the 2012 fall elections.

  • report

    Most Say They Already Know Enough about the Candidates

    Overview With more than three months to go before Election Day, most voters already feel that there’s little left to learn about the presidential candidates. When it comes to Barack Obama, 90% say they already pretty much know what they need to know about him; just 8% say they need to learn more. A substantial […]

  • report

    Romney’s Overseas Trip a Chance to Burnish Foreign Policy Credentials

    Mitt Romney’s trip to Europe and Israel this week highlights a potential weakness of his candidacy. The former Massachusetts governor trails Barack Obama by eight points among registered voters as the candidate best able to handle foreign policy and 12 points as best able to defend against terrorist attacks, according to the Pew Research Center’s […]

  • report

    Candidate Preference by Religious Group, July Update

    Polling conducted in late June and early July by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that despite the stagnant economy and broad dissatisfaction with national conditions, Barack Obama holds a significant lead over Mitt Romney.

  • report

    Partisans Agree: Presidential Election Will Be Exhausting

    Overview Republicans and Democrats find little to agree on these days, but they have some similar reactions to the 2012 presidential campaign. Nearly identical percentages of Republicans and Democrats say the election will be exhausting. On the positive side, there also is widespread partisan agreement that the campaign will be informative. The national survey by […]

  • report

    PBS NewsHour’s Jim Lehrer and Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut Discuss the 2012 Election

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3kg6P7e7jk   On Monday, July 2, retiring “PBS NewsHour” anchor Jim Lehrer interviewed Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut at the Chautauqua Institution’s Morning Lecture Series, titled, “The Lehrer Report: What Informed Voters Need to Know.” The discussion was part of the New York institution’s annual summer event held before an audience of 3,500. Lehrer and Kohut discussed […]

  • report

    Economy, Election Are Public’s Top Stories

    Overview The public continued to track news about the economy and the presidential election, while paying less attention to another important political story – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in a hard-fought recall election. The latest weekly News Interest Index, conducted June 7-10 among 1,000 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & […]

  • report

    Candidate Preference by Religious Group, June Update

    Polling conducted in May and early June by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that Mitt Romney continues to hold a commanding lead over Barack Obama among white evangelical voters. But Obama leads Romney by large margins among black Protestants and religiously unaffiliated voters.