Survey: Born Again Christians Made Major Impact on Bush's Re-election

A recent nationwide Barna Group survey shows that born-again Christians who were “values voters” were a big factor in the re-election of President Bush.

The survey, which involved interviewing 1004 adults over the phone, reported that born again Christians supported President George W. Bush by a 62% to 38% margin. Non-born again voters were more likely to support Senator John Kerry than Bush, 59 to 39 percent.

Although the born again population constitutes just 38% of the national population, the survey said, it represented 53% of the vote cast in the election. The survey suggested that if the born again public had shown up proportional to its population size, Senator Kerry would have won the election by the same three-point margin of victory enjoyed by Mr. Bush.

Evangelical Christians also helped re-elect Bush, constituting 11% of the voters and chose President Bush by an 85% to 15% margin, shows the survey.

Around 60% of voters under 30 voted for Kerry but when examined by different generational groups, Bush received the majority vote. The Baby Bust generation or people of ages from 21 to 39 voted for Bush, 51% to 48%. Baby Boomers gave the President 55% of the vote compared to 44% who elected Kerry. People over the age of 59 categorized as Elders in the survey also slightly favored Bush over Kerry, 51% versus 48%.

The research also finds that adults who attend church services regularly and had an “active faith,” meaning they had attended a church service, prayed to God, and read the Bible outside of church in the past week, were more likely to vote for Bush.