In national polls, it’s been looking like Obama’s outreach to moderate evangelicals has been unsuccessful. But recent state polls indicate he’s doing a bit better among evangelicals in certain states.
A new ABCNews poll of Ohio voters has McCain winning white evangelicals 65%-30%, a smaller margin than Bush had 2004 (75%-23%).
A recent Qunnipiac survey found similar results in Ohio (62%-30%) and Pennsylvania (62%-35%) — but that Obama fared noticeably worse among Florida’s evangelicals (71%-24%).
Still not sure how to explain the regional variation. It may simply be that the economy is worse in those states so social issues loom smaller. Or it may be that the Northeast/Midwest grows a politically more moderate flavor of evangelicalism.