Evangelicals

Three-quarters of Georgia’s likely GOP primary voters are evangelical Christians and half are “very conservative” -- and they heavily favor Newt Gingrich, according to a Mason-Dixon Poll conducted for the Georgia Newspaper Partnership, of which the Ledger-Enquirer is a member. In addition to evangelical Christians and very conservative voters, Gingrich especially appeals to rural voters, residents of north Georgia, those with less than a...  

President Barack Obama for the first time has opened a sizable lead over his most likely Republican opponents, thanks to growing support among independent ... Republicans and white evangelicals. He led Romney, the former Massachusetts governor ...  

Santorum snagged the evangelical vote in Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, Romney in New Hampshire and Nevada, Gingrich in South Carolina. In Florida, Romney and Gingrich split that support. The top issues for evangelical voters typically ...  

As an American, a Republican, and a fiscal and social conservative — and though I have endorsed no Republican candidate — there is one thing that would disturb me greatly if Mitt Romney were not the Republican nominee: if Romney’s Mormon faith were a factor in his defeat. Many evangelical leaders have said that if Romney is the Republican presidential candidate, they will vote for him in the general election. What is implied, and sometimes...  

University of South Carolina Aiken professor has authored a study that shows the Mormon faith of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney poses a challenge for religious conservative voters. Romney did nearly twice as well among non-evangelical voters as he did among evangelicals, having won just 22 percent of their vote, according to exit poll data analyzed by Political Science Professor Bob Botsch following the South Carolina GOP...  

Apropos of my post this morning suggesting that Republicans unhappy with the current presidential field will come around, here is Rick Perlstein: I've never been impressed with the argument that Mitt Romney makes for a weak Republican nominee because conservatives don't like him. That's not how that party works. Like they say, "Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line." Don't believe me? Think back four years. When the race was still...  

This morning, Quinnipiac suggests the Romney momentum in Florida continues: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has a 43 – 29 percent lead over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich among Republican likely voters in Florida, the nation’s first big-state ...  

Evangelical voters are having as hard a time as anyone at figuring out what to do with the Republican candidates in this presidential primary cycle. They could not bring themselves to line up uniformly behind any one of the evangelical candidates. They briefly supported the socially conservative Roman Catholic candidate, Rick Santorum, and then lost [...]  

LUTZ, Fla. - Facing the possibility of a stinging defeat, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich combined sharp attacks on Mitt Romney with unspoken appeals for support among the state's evangelicals on Sunday, two days before the pivotal Florida primary. read more  

By Charles W. Dunn What a friend we have in Romney, all our sins and griefs to bear! This takeoff on a beloved evangelical hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," expresses the plight of evangelicals. They backed the wrong horse and now have to either back Mitt Romney or sit out the election.  

Oman: Mitt Romney’s Mormonism will be an issue in the general election, if he gets there as widely expected. The media have focused on skepticism among conservative evangelicals, who regard Mormonism as a cult, but secularists also have worries, fearing that Romney is the tool of Mormon theocracy.  

He concluded, “This is geography, not ideology.” I think Cost is right that the split is about something other than ideology. Romney’s vote share has tended to be consistent across ideological groups in each particular state, the opposite ...  

Bush in 2000, the broader Christian Conservative/Born-Again Christian/Evangelical Christian movement had solidified "family values" into a full-blown political litmus test right up there with gun control and almost as effective as Grover Norquist's ...  

Mainstream Christians view that story with skepticism along with other unorthodox beliefs ... from a strong dose of Mormon values regardless of what you think about their theology," DeMoss, a former aide to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, said Wednesday.  

The “E Word” in Christianity is a funny thing. In one respect, Evangelicals are self-identified, and therefore, self-defined. On the other, popular culture (particularly media) lays its own meaning on what it means to be Evangelical. In the latter ...