Religious fault lines remained largely unchanged in the US elections that gave President Barack Obama another four years in the White House, the Pew Research Center said Wednesday.
In an analysis of exit polls, its Forum on Religion and Public Life said Obama lost ground among white evangelical Protestants and white Roman Catholics in his race against Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a Mormon.
“But the basic religious contours of the 2012 electorate resembled recent elections,” it said.
“Traditionally Republican groups such as white evangelicals and weekly churchgoers strongly backed Romney, while traditionally Democratic groups such as black Protestants, Hispanic Catholics, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated backed Obama by large margins.”
Ninety-five percent of black Protestants voted for Obama. So did 50 percent of Catholics, despite their church leadership’s opposition to his support for marriage equality and free contraception coverage in health insurance plans.
Among Mormons, 78 percent voted from Romney, who had he won would have been the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to occupy the White House.
Religious contours little changed in US election: analysis
