Romney Says Evangelicals are Supporting Him
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October 17, 2007
Romney Says Evangelicals are Supporting Him
by Scott Presson
In a speech yesterday, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that “despite numbers indicating that many Evangelical Protestants are wary of supporting him because of his faith, some of those voters are backing him because their values align.”
According to an article in The Salt Lake Tribune, Romney, a devout Mormon, said that “Evangelicals have actually helped boost him in polls in early primary states”.
Romney says his success in those states is coming in part because of “Evangelical Christians saying 'Look, we share values. You flow from the same Judeo-Christian philosophies that the rest of us flow from.”
Some polls show that upwards of “43 percent of voters surveyed would be less likely to vote for a Mormon, with that reluctance particularly strong among Evangelical Protestants who see significant doctrinal differences between their faiths and Mormons”.
According to Costas Panagopoulos, political science professor at Fordham University, Romney may have a point.
"To some extent, he's probably right," Panagopoulos said. There's some segment of that electorate that would be attracted to Romney not because he's a Mormon or a member of some faith, just because his faith is an important aspect of his identity…That segment would rather have a strongly religious candidate than one who isn't as religious”.
Romney, who did not mention his faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during his speech, has had an uphill battle with many Evangelical voters who consider Mormonism a cult.
This weekend, Romney faces another test of how much his religious affiliation will play in the White House race when he speaks to the Values Voters Summit, a gathering of religious conservatives in Washington.
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