According to the latest WaPo/ABC poll, white evangelicals are evenly divided between the GOP and the Tea Party when asked which best represents “their own personal values.” This should put to rest any doubts that the Tea Party, with its exclusively economic public agenda, somehow is failing to appeal to social conservatives.

Since this is the first time the poll offered the Tea Party as a “best represents” choice, it’s impossible to know what the trend line is. But last November, only 57 percent of white evangelicals (three-quarters of whom tend to vote Republican) said the GOP best represents their interests. White evangelicals may constitute the religious base of the Republican Party, but at least when it comes to party i.d., they’re not, at the moment, a particularly loyal one.