God-o-Meter just got this memo on John McCain’s Catholic support in Florida from John Rankin, communications director for Sam Brownback’s presidential campaign, who’s been helping McCain with outreach to religious conservatives:
McCain Wins Florida Catholic Vote by Ten Points
Wins both mass-attending and non-mass attending Catholics; striking difference seen between Catholic and Protestant vote
• Senator McCain scored an overwhelming 10-point victory among Florida Catholic voters, by a 38%-28% margin.
• Catholics turned out as 29% of all voters, which was increased turnout from the 2004 election, where Catholics were 28%.
• This was a large 16 point difference from McCain’s performance with Protestant voters, where he lost protestants to Romney by a margin of 35%-29%.
• Mike Huckabee’s support among Catholics collapsed, at only 4%.
McCain Wins Both Mass-Attending and Non-Mass Attending Catholics
• In a striking reversal from exit polling in Michigan (the only other state that exit polled mass attending vs. non-mass attending Catholics), Senator McCain won the mass-attending Catholic voter in Florida, 35%-30%.
• This was a complete reversal of Michigan, where Senator McCain lost mass-attending Catholics to Romney, 36%-41%.
• He also easily won non-mass attending Catholics, 40%-27%.
McCain Performed Exceptionally Well with Hispanic Catholics
• Senator McCain narrowly won the white Catholic vote (which was 21% of all Florida voters), by a margin 33%-32%.
• By inference, Hispanic Catholics are assumed to have been 8% of all Florida voters. Senator McCain performed exceptionally well to win the statewide Catholic vote by 10 points. Estimates would indicate that Senator McCain won the Hispanic Catholic vote by a margin of 2:1.
McCain Performed Poorly with White Born-Again Evangelicals
• Senator McCain finished third among white born-again Evangelicals, behind Huckabee and Romney.
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