Latino Voters Support Obama, But Catholics And Evangelicals Differ Widely,
Pew Survey Finds
Jaweed Kaleem ("Huffington Post," October 18, 2012)
A new survey released Thursday shows that while Latino voters generally
support the reelection of President Barack Obama by a wide margin over
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, there are wide political divisions
among the population's religious groups, such as Catholics and evangelicals.
About three-quarters of Latino Catholics and 8 in 10 religiously
unaffiliated Latinos support reelecting Obama, according to the report from
the Pew
Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center. Yet, when it
comes to Latino evangelicals, a growing group that includes about 16
percent of Latino registered voters, just half support Obama while 39 percent
support Romney.
By comparison, Catholic whites are almost split, with 47 preferring Obama
and 46 percent supporting Romney. Among white evangelicals, Romney,
meanwhile, has a significant lead.
There are 23.7 million registered Latino voters in the nation -- about 11
percent of the electorate -- and they make up at least 14 percent of voters
in three key battleground states: Colorado, Florida and Nevada. The
population of registered Latino voters has grown by 4 million since Obama was
first elected and issues of importance to Latinos, including immigration, have
become popular topics on the campaign trail.
At Tuesday's presidential debate, Obama and Romney sparred over immigration
reform and Arizona's controversial immigration policy enforcement law. In
Florida, where the third and last debate between the candidates will be
Monday at Boca Raton's Lynn University, there are 2.1 million Latino voters --
about 16 percent of the state's electorate.
The survey found that patterns similar to presidential picks play out among
Latinos' political party preferences. Eight in 10 religiously unaffiliated
Latinos -- the group makes up about 15 percent of Latino voters -- and 7
in 10 Latino Catholics said they were Democrats who leaned toward the
Democratic Party. For evangelicals, about half were Democrats or leaned
Democratic and about a third said they were Republicans or leaned Republican.
The survey also asked Latino churchgoers how much they are hearing about
political candidates and issues leading up to elections. Fifty-four percent
of those who attend religious services at least once a month said they have
heard clergy speak about abortion, while 43 percent said they had heard
clergy talk about immigration and 38 percent reported speech from the pulpit
about homosexuality. About 3 in 10 Latino churchgoers said clergy had spoken
directly about candidate and elections.
For the first time since the Pew Hispanic Center started asking about
same-sex marriage, more Latinos said they supported allowing gays and lesbians
to marry -- 52 percent -- than the 32 percent that opposed it. When Pew
asked the question three years ago, 44 percent opposed same-sex marriage while
34 percent supported it. Previous surveys by other organizations have also
shown increased support of same-sex marriage legalization among Latinos.
“This finding reflects the overall trend in the general public toward more
support for same-sex marriage,” the report said.
Among Latino evangelicals, opposition to gay marriage is strong, with 66
percent against and 25 percent favoring. For comparison, registered Catholic
voters support same-sex marriage at similar levels to registered Latino
Catholics, but surveys of white evangelicals have found they are more opposed
to same-sex marriage than Latino evangelicals.
The bilingual national survey was conducted via telephone between Sept. 7
and Oct. 4, largely before the first presidential debate, which was Oct. 3
in Denver. It surveyed 1,765 Latino adults, of which 903 were registered
voters.
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