Evangelicals, Catholics Look for Middle Ground in Election
WASHINGTON – Evangelical and Catholic leaders have discussed how Evangelicals and Catholics this week voted based on their faith and values rather than on a political party in the 2006 election.
According to Jeff Carr, the chief operating officer of Sojourners Magazine, the “losers” in the 2006 election were the secular left and the religious right. He said Wednesday that Americans were “hungry” for new things such as a national conversation between Congress and President Bush on Iraq. Carr said that the election statistics indicated that Evangelical and Catholic voters were looking for a moral center.
According to the National Election Pool Exit Polls, there was a dramatic shift in Catholic and Evangelical votes compared to the 2004 Presidential election and the 2004 National House figures. There was a 7-point swing nationally in the Evangelical vote in 2006, D28/R70, compared to the 2004 National House Vote, 25D/74R. The Democratic party won the Catholic vote with a 12-point shift nationally, 55D/44R, compared to the 2004 National House, 49D/50R.
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The field director for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, Eric McFadden, noted that the 2006 election did not depend as heavily on divisive issues, such as abortion and homosexuality, as in the 2004 election but instead on middle ground topics.
Sr. Simone Campbell, national coordinator of NETWORK, the national Catholic social justice lobby on Capitol Hill, and Sojourners’ Carr said that Evangelical and Catholic voters were interested this year in broader issue such as Iraq, minimum wage, health insurance, Darfur, and the environment.
