How Did the “Nones” Vote?

It’s not surprising that religious Americans voted overwhelmingly for John McCain. Still, the percent of Evangelical Christians voting for the Democrat this election went up five percent from 2004 (from 21% to 26%).

That five percent change in favor of Barack Obama wasn’t the biggest change on the list, though.

That honor went to those of us not connected with any faith.

The Pew Forum says this:

In Obama’s victory over Republican nominee John McCain, the Democrats’ largest gains (eight percentage points) were seen among those who are unaffiliated with any particular religion; fully three-quarters of this group supported Obama. This group has also been a big part of the Democratic coalition in the previous two presidential elections, 61% having supported Al Gore in 2000 and 67% having supported Kerry in 2004.

Hopefully, that number will stand out to future candidates who may finally reach out to our constituency. We’re not asking for favors, just acknowledgment of our existence and fair treatment under the law for those of all faiths and no faith.

(via Secular Values Voter)

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Foxglove

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"Pretty much."

Sastra

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Joe King

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Autonomous Intellection

Lots of conclusions can be drawn from this, but I’m not entirely sure what this says. I generally think of people unaffiliated with religion as being more open-minded, and thus they’d vote for the better candidate based on more than just his stance on [insert meaningless religious doctrine-based law] but on his policies as a whole. But there are nuts in both camps.

The Evangelical Christian change seems more meaningful to me. Even the complete nut-jobs are questioning whether the whole Republican thing is really good for this country.
Miko

Hopefully, that number will stand out to future candidates

It won’t: as long as the only “serious alternative” is the Republicans, the Democrats know that they have the nontheists trapped. They don’t have to appeal; they just have to be slightly less revolting. Plus, “unaffiliated” means different things to different people, and I’d doubt that religious policy qua religious policy is a major factor for many of the people in that group, especially when compared to the level to which it is in the “pass laws against anything I disagree with” fundamentalist camp.
Wim V

I always find the group “Jewish” to be slightly misleading. It’s not just a reference to a faith, but the term also covers an ethnicity. I guess nonreligious Jewish politicians are all too aware of this and it allows them to avoid going into their non-belief.
Ray

What the heck is a White Catholic?
teammarty

OF course the Dems are agog over the 25% evangelical vote that they get but we are out of the big tent because the nonreligious don’t “deliver the vote”.
hoverFrog

The biggest gains to be made are in Evangelical Christians. If the Democrats court this demographic they will increase their lead more than if they court the “unaffiliated” group. I think that “Dems doing religion” will be a prominent trend in the next decade rather than the other way round.

Note also that the Republicans have the most to gain from the non-Christian demographic. How are they going to work that?