Thursday, November 13, 2014

Voting Trends Based on Religion


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



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.

200620102014
DEMREPDEMREPDEMREP
Protestant445438593761
Protestant (C)376128692672
Roman Catholic554444544554
Roman Catholic (C)504939593860
Evangelical (C)287019772078
Jewish87126633

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

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