Report: Obama wins Catholic vote, loses ground among white evangelicals

Rose French writes about religious and spiritual matters for the Star Tribune. Before arriving in the Twin Cities this fall, she covered religion for the Associated Press in Tennessee, where she wrote about the Southern Baptists, United Methodists, Gideons and other religious groups and issues.

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Report: Obama wins Catholic vote, loses ground among white evangelicals

Posted by: Rose French Updated: November 8, 2012 - 10:14 AM

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President Obama won the support of Catholic, Jewish and non-white voters from a variety of religious faiths in his defeat of GOP candidate Mitt Romney, though he lost ground among white evangelical Protestants compared to 2008, according to a just released report.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's report issued Wednesday -- based on results from the National Election Pool exit polls -- finds that the basic “religious contours of the 2012 electorate are similar to recent elections – traditionally Republican groups such as white evangelicals and weekly churchgoers strongly backed Republican Mitt Romney, while traditionally Democratic groups such as black Protestants, Hispanic Catholics, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated backed Obama by large margins.”

“Mormon voters were firmly in Romney’s corner, with 78 percent voting for him. Catholics as a whole were evenly divided (50 percent voted for Obama and 48 percent backed Romney), while white Catholics swung strongly in the Republican direction relative to 2008.”

To read the full analysis, check out the Pew Forum website, which includes more details on how major religious groups and the religiously unaffiliated voted, vote choice by religious attendance, and the religious composition of the 2012 electorate.