Romney’s evangelical support equaled Bush’s
Republican nominee Mitt Romney won a larger percentage of the evangelical vote than did John McCain in 2008 and even equaled that of George W. Bush’s 2004 percentage, according to an exit poll data analysis by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Romney received 79 percent of the white born-again/evangelical vote to McCain’s 73 percent. President Obama, meanwhile, won 20 percent of that group this year compared to 26 percent in 2008. President Bush received 79 percent of support from white born-again/evangelical voters in 2004. The public exit poll data does not list how evangelicals of all races voted.
All total, whites who identify as born-again/evangelical comprised 26 percent of all voters — the same as 2008.
It is not yet known, though, if the same number of evangelicals, in raw numbers, voted for Romney as they did for McCain, as has been discussed on social media. As of Thursday, Romney received about 2.1 million fewer votes than did McCain, but an unknown number of votes have yet to be counted. For instance, in 2008, McCain gained 4 million votes in his total after Election Day. Still, voter turnout across the board appeared to be down this year compared to 2008.