Religion and the New Hampshire Primary
by John C. Green
Former governor Howard Dean made news late last year when he announced he would be talking more about his faith in order to be a more competitive presidential candidate. The New Hampshire primary results reveal some basis for his concern: the Democrats had a bit of a traditional "religion gap" of their own.
Exit polls disclosed a worship attendance gap between voters for John Kerry and Howard Dean in the Granite State. People who said they attended worship services at least once a week preferred Kerry over Dean, 41 percent to 22 percent. The vote was much closer among those who report never attending worship, with Kerry at 34 percent and Dean at 30 percent. (Kerry won the primary with 39 percent of the vote, and Dean came in second with 26 percent.)There was also a Catholic-Protestant division: Kerry carried 47 percent of the Catholic vote to Dean's 19 percent. Kerry's margin was smaller among Protestants -- 37 percent to 25 percent -- and even more so among secular voters, 33 percent to 29 percent. Religious affiliation and attendance worked together in Kerry's favor. For example, he won the regular attending Catholics, 49 percent to 15 percent. These results show the same general pattern as in 2000, when Al Gore narrowly edged Bill Bradley in a close contest.
