Christian Democrats are far more moderate than Democrats who identify as atheists, agnostics, and “nones.”
Digging into data from Pew Research Center, I want to show how disparate these two groups are in their voting plans.
The difference is clear. A full 43 percent of Protestant Democrats want a moderate to be the next president; less than a quarter want a progressive like Bernie or Elizabeth Warren. Among atheists, it’s the reverse. Nearly 6 in 10 want a progressive and less than a quarter want a traditional moderate. It’s also interesting that atheists have nearly all made up their mind about who they are likely to vote for–only 5 percent say they are undecided about who they’re leaning toward, while almost a quarter of Protestant Democrats say they don’t yet know who they’ll vote for.
Among white evangelicals who identify as Democrats, the desire for an orthodox moderate Democrat like Biden or Buttigieg is even stronger than among Protestants generally, with nearly half preferring a centrist candidate and a quarter leaning toward a progressive. It’s the exact reverse among religiously unaffiliated Democrats as a group.
Black Protestant Democrats follow the general Protestant pattern, though they are the least excited about Bernie- and Warren-brand progressivism, with less than 2 in 10 looking that direction. With nearly a third who say they don’t know who they’re likely to vote for, it seems they are the least zealous about the current Democrat presidential options.
The question remains: will Christian Democrats vote for a progressive en masse? Would they be strongly enough opposed to vote for Trump? Or would they choose a third way–a third-party candidate or not voting?
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