What sorts of Democratic candidates and appeals might attract evangelical Protestant voters?
Since the early 1980s, evangelical Protestants have constituted a highly loyal and cohesive electoral bloc for Republican candidates. Known for their conservative stances on socio-moral issues such as abortion and homosexuality, evangelicals are the backbone of the broader “religious right” political movement. In 2004, mobilizing evangelical Protestants, particularly in “battleground states,” was one of the chief strategies of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. But the success of the Democratic Party in the 2006 midterm elections suggests some loosening of the ties. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that white evangelical voters cast 3 percent more of their votes for Democratic congressional candidates last fall than they had in 2004; the Democrats’ gains were even greater—an estimated 7 percent increase—among white evangelicals who do not attend religious services every week. These gains are relatively small in absolute terms, but elections can turn on small shifts.
