Race, Faith & Politics: Sharp Racial Divide Among Young Evangelical Voters
Friday, October 5, 2012 at 10:47AM 
A new Public Religion Research Institute Poll is focusing on voter trends among “millennials”—between the ages of 18-25. While the poll results show that the faith of a president matters greatly, the findings also reveal a sharp racial divide among evangelical Christian youth and their voting patterns.
The poll of 1,214 young adults aged 18 to 25 was conducted online between August 28 and September 10 and shows that white evangelical millennials are throwing their support behind Mitt Romney in staggering numbers.
A whopping eight-in-ten (80 percent) support Romney, while just 15 percent support Obama.
"One of the most striking findings of the survey is the impact of parental example on younger Millennial voter engagement and voting preferences," said Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute.
"Younger Millennials whose parents brought them to the voting booth as children are significantly more likely to be registered to vote, and younger Millennials who have two parents supporting the same presidential candidate are closely following the vote choices of their parents."
Christian Post reports, Black Millennial voters overwhelmingly support Obama over Romney by a margin of 97 percent to 2 percent, while Obama's lead among younger Hispanic Millennial voters is also substantial at 67 percent vs. 23 percent.
By contrast, Romney has an 11-point advantage over Obama among white Millennial voters, 52 to 41 percent.
“Religion has played a small but noticeable role in the current presidential showdown between Obama, a Christian, and Romney, a Mormon,” says CNN. “Romney has used religion as a dividing issue with Obama, challenging the president on issues of religious freedom, contraception and the role of religion in American life.”
Read the full report on CNN.
Reader Comments (1)
Wow that's interesting. I thought Obama was carrying the youth vote. At least I though he did in 08. What happened?