A new poll by Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly sheds some light on a very interesting Evangelical voting pattern. Read below:
Parents may know best, but when it comes to this year's election, fewer young evangelical voters are taking Mom's and Dad's advice into the voting booth, according to a new survey.
While Sen. John McCain maintains a winning margin among white evangelical Christians of all ages, young white evangelical voters are less supportive of McCain than evangelical voters over the age of 30, according to the poll conducted for the PBS program ''Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly'' by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc.
McCain has the support of 71 percent of white evangelicals, but only 62 percent of white evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 29. ''Evangelical voters have been so solidly Republican in the last 20 years, so if this signals a shift, it could have wide-ranging political implications,'' said Kim Lawton, the managing editor of ''Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.''
Some differences on social issues also were highlighted in the survey. A majority of younger white evangelicals support some form of legal recognition for civil unions or marriage for same-sex couples. Older evangelicals are strongly opposed.
Both age groups remain solidly opposed to abortion.
''There's been so much discussion about evangelical voters but there's been very little research,'' said Lawton. ''This is the first to confirm there are some generational differnces.)
Read more here.
The fact that McCain isn't polling as well with younger Evangelicals seems to indicate Obama's youthful vision of hope (the way the younger generation sees it) resonates to a degree with this group. In my reporting I have noticed that the younger crowd is tired of all the partisan bickering coming from Washington. And while John McCain has been a guy who's been able to work across the aisle, he's also been around Washington for a long time. That perception doesn't do him any favors.
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