Voting Trends Based on Religion

For John, BLUF:  We are a diverse group as Americans.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From Pew Research we have a look at the recent election through the prism of religion, "How the Faithful Voted: 2014 Preliminary Analysis". As one could have guessed, Protestants and Romans Catholics are tending more Republican.

	2006		2010		2014
	DEM	REP	DEM	REP	DEM	REP
Protestant	44	54	38	59	37	61
Protestant (C)	37	61	28	69	26	72
Roman Catholic	55	44	44	54	45	54
Roman Catholic (C)	50	49	39	59	38	60
Evangelical (C)	28	70	19	77	20	78
Jewish	87	12	—	—	66	33

So, amongst those who claim some faith, the trend over the last eight years has been toward voting Republican.  Not really discussed in the article are Black people of faith, who tend to vote Democrat and who thus make the difference between, say Protestant and Protestant Caucasian, the (C) rows.  I would have liked to have seen the Evangelical numbers for all Evangelicals.  Assuming all Evangelicals are Caucasian seems an over-simplification.

The other interesting line is Jewish.  While Jews are fewer in number than Blacks, they have been a stalwart Democrat voting block.  Now we see that a third of them voted Republican in the recent election.  I am guessing that is due to what they see as President Obama's stand on Israel, but it could also, IMHO, reflect concerns over immigration or the economy.

The pundits tell us these trends will reverse in 2016 (or 2018) and I expect they will, at least, as Damond Runyon would say, that is the way to bet.  But, still, it could be a long term trend.

Regards  —  Cliff