PHILADELPHIA (ABP) — Religious voters — especially the state’s all-important Catholic population — appear to have given New York Sen. Hillary Clinton a big boost in the crucial April 22 Pennsylvania primary.
But most religious Catholics and most religious Protestants differed sharply in their support for Clinton and her rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
Exit polls in the Democratic presidential contest showed that an overwhelming majority of voters who identified themselves as Catholic cast their ballots for Clinton. Catholics — who represented 36 percent of all Democratic voters — chose her over Obama by a whopping 40-point margin, 70 percent to 30 percent.
Pennsylvania’s Protestants went for Clinton in percentages almost identical to that of the commonwealth’s overall Democratic electorate — 55 percent to Obama’s 45 percent. After Catholics, they made up the next largest religious category in the primary, with 24 percent of the total.
Jews, who made up 8 percent of Pennsylvania’s Democratic turnout, favored Clinton 62-38 percent.
Only three broad religious categories favored Obama in the state. Those who said they were Christian but did not identify as Protestant, Catholic or Mormon made up 13 percent of voters, and they favored Obama by a 2-to-1 margin. He also had a 24-point edge among those listing no religious affiliation, who made up 10 percent of Pennsylvania Democrats. And the six percent of primary voters who listed a religious affiliation other than Christian, Mormon, Jewish or Muslim went for Obama 58-42 percent.
The one percent of Pennsylvania voters the exit polls identified as Muslim were not statistically significant enough to measure their support for the respective candidates.
When measured against rate of attendance at religious services, Clinton beat Obama in each of the commonwealth’s major categories except those who said they “never” attend worship — a category he won by the same margin (55-45 percent) that he lost the overall primary.
Curiously, the worship-attendance category in which the candidates were most closely matched was among those who said they go to services more often than weekly. Clinton barely edged Obama among those voters 51-49 percent, according to the polls. However, they made up only 9 percent of those who cast ballots in the primary.
One sub-category in which the candidates were statistically tied — at 50 percent each — was the 9 percent of voters who said they are Protestant and attend church more than once a week.
Conversely, Catholics who said they attend Mass weekly or more often favored Clinton over Obama by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. They made up 18 percent of Democratic voters.
Blue-collar voters experiencing hard economic times — who make up much of Pennsylvania’s Catholic vote – also preferred Clinton in overwhelming numbers.
Pennsylvania’s churchgoing vote for Clinton was in marked contrast to that of many earlier primary campaigns where Obama seemed to have erased her advantage among Catholics. In particular, Obama did well among Catholics in the Feb. 12 “Potomac Primary” contests in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia and the Feb. 19 Wisconsin primary.
But her margins among Pennsyvlania Catholics were even larger than they were in the two states she won March 5 with strong Catholic support: Texas and Ohio.
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Read more:
On March 4, Catholics boost Clinton; evangelicals can’t save Huckabee (3/5)
Religious voters in ‘Potomac Primary’ boost Obama, protest McCain (2/13)