WASHINGTON (ABP) — All religious groups shifted toward Barack Obama, the candidate opposed by the Religious Right's leadership, in his historic presidential win Nov. 4. Still, religious conservatives did manage a few victories.
The Democratic candidate garnered about 52 percent of the popular vote to GOP nominee John McCain's 46 percent.
The Democratic candidate garnered about 52 percent of the popular vote to GOP nominee John McCain's 46 percent.
While McCain and running mate Sarah Palin — a darling of the right — lost the night's biggest prize, four statewide ballot initiatives aimed at curtailing gay rights appeared headed for passage. Other ballot initiatives watched closely by religious conservatives — like gambling and abortion rights — were a mixed bag.
Obama improved significantly on John Kerry's performance in every major religious category, according to exit polls as analyzed [http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=367] by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, lost white evangelicals by huge margins and Catholics by a narrower margin in losing to President Bush's re-election bid.
Obama did better than Kerry among evangelicals and won a majority of Catholics. He also scored increased support among Jews, Protestants in general and those not affiliated with any religion.
Democrats added at least five seats to their Senate majority — with four still unresolved as of press time for this story — and about 20 to their House majority. While picking off some prominent congressional social conservatives, Democrats failed to unseat others considered vulnerable prior to the election:
— In North Carolina, Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole — who came under heavy fire for a last-minute campaign ad implying her challenger was an atheist — lost by a wide margin to Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan. Hagan, an ordained elder and Sunday school teacher at First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, N.C., answered with her own ad accusing her opponent of "bearing false witness against fellow Christians."
— In Colorado, GOP Rep. Marilyn Musgrave — who has been the chief House backer of failed attempts to add an anti-gay-marriage amendment to the Constitution — lost to Democratic challenger Betsy Markey, 57 percent to 43 percent.
— In Minnesota, Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann eked out a 46 percent-43 percent victory over Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg, overcoming negative publicity about a national TV interview in which she said she thought Obama might have "anti-American" views.
— And in Georgia, conservative Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss appeared headed for a Dec. 2 runoff with Democrat Jim Martin. Neither had garnered more than 50 percent of the vote by press time.
On state ballot initiatives, religious conservatives claimed a big victory in California. Proposition 8, which would repeal the marriage rights that the state's highest court authorized in May for same-sex couples, appeared headed to a narrow victory when this story was written.
Evangelicals, conservative Catholics and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined together to promote the measure. The Mormons poured tens of millions of dollars into advertisements that gay-rights activists called blatantly misleading.
Bans on same-sex marriage in Florida and Arizona — which defeated a similar state constitutional amendment two years ago — passed easily.
Nearly 57 percent of Arkansas voters approved a ban on unmarried couples serving as adoptive or foster parents. The measure bans both same-sex and opposite-sex cohabiting couples from caring for children, but opponents and some supporters said it was targeted at keeping gays from adopting. It came in response to a 2006 Arkansas Supreme Court decision striking down a ban on homosexual foster parents.
Anti-abortion forces didn't fare nearly as well as opponents of gay rights. Measures to outlaw or restrict abortion lost in California, Colorado and South Dakota. The measure in South Dakota would have been the nation's strictest abortion ban. It was similar to an abortion ban that state defeated by a similar margin in 2006.
Lottery or gambling-expansion measures passed in three of six states where they appeared on the ballot.
Washington state approved the nation's second assisted-suicide law. Neighbor Oregon is the only other U.S. jurisdiction that allows physician-assisted euthanasia.
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