Conservative, Evangelical Voters Turn Out Strong for Midterms

According to the results of an election-day survey by the Faith and Freedom Coalition (FFC), self-professed evangelicals and social conservatives made up the largest single voting block in the midterm elections held on Nov. 2.

The survey results, released after the elections, showed that the two groups cast 29 percent of the votes, and a whopping 78 percent of them voted Republican. For this year’s midterm elections, evangelicals garnered their highest turnout in history, up 5 percent over the previous high in 2006.

“People of faith turned out in the highest numbers in a midterm election we have ever seen, and they made an invaluable contribution to the historic results,” said FFC Chairman Ralph Reed, “including the election of a Republican majority in the House and significant gains in U.S. Senate seats, governorships, and hundreds of state legislative seats and local offices.”

Also contributing to the turnout were self-identified members of the Tea Party, 52 percent of whom said they are evangelicals, and Roman Catholics, who as a block voted 58 percent Republican.

“This survey, along with numerous exit polls, makes clear that those who ignore or disregard social conservative voters and their issues do so at their own peril,” Reed said.

The FFC telephone survey was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies on Nov. 2 with 1,000 voters and had a ±3.1 percent margin of error.