Two thirds of Americans OK with Mormon candidate
Roughly two out of three Americans say it makes no difference to them
if a presidential candidate is Mormon, according to a new Pew Research
Center poll, although evangelicals are more cautious.
The poll
found that 68 percent of respondents said a candidate's Mormon faith
would not matter, while one in four said they would be less likely to
support a Mormon.
White evangelicals were most likely to care
about a candidate's Mormon faith, with one third of them saying they
would be less likely to support a Mormon candidate, compared to 24
percent of the religiously unaffiliated and 19 percent of Catholics and
white mainline Protestants.
Half of registered voters who had
heard of candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, said there's at least some
chance they would support him in 2012. Among those who are less likely
to vote for a Mormon candidate, just 31 percent said there was at least
some chance the former Massachusetts governor would be their choice.
The survey, conducted May 25–30, was based on a national sample of 1,509 adults.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who is also a Mormon, announced his entrance into the Republican primary on June 21.
While
82 percent of registered voters had heard of Romney, only 32 percent
knew of Huntsman, who recently resigned as the U.S. ambassador to
China. Slightly more than a third of registered voters who had heard of
Huntsman said he had at least some chance of getting their vote. —RNS
