Election watchers who are concerned about exit polling that hasn’t asked as many religious questions of Democrats as Republicans took things into their own hands and concluded that one in three white evangelical voters in Missouri and Tennessee voted in Democratic primaries. These findings, from a Zogby poll commissioned by Faith in Public Life and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, looked at 800 voters in each of the two states.
Among the key findings:
-32 percent of Tennessee white evangelical primary voters were Democratic
-34 percent of Missouri white evangelical primary voters were Democratic
-Missouri’s white evangelical voters favored Sen. Hillary Clinton over Sen. Barack Obama 54 percent to 37 percent
-Tennessee’s white evangelical voters favored Clinton 78 percent to 12 percent
-Majorities of Republican and Democratic white evangelical voters say they favor a broad agenda, including addressing poverty, the environment and HIV/AIDS, over a limited agenda that opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.
“Contrary to conventional wisdom, white evangelicals are really quite important to the Democratic vote,” said Robert P. Jones, a consultant on religion and politics, who discussed the results with reporters in a Monday teleconference.
