This is amazing. Two new surveys show that younger evangelicals are cooler to Democrats than older evangelicals. This runs directly contrary to the Obama campaigns message that he would rack up evangelical votes amongst the youngins.
According to the Religion and Ethics Newsweekly and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc. poll released a couple of weeks ago, 36% of white evangelicals over age 30 rated Obama favorably — while only 28% of those under 30 did so.
A survey released Wednesday from Faith and Public Life said younger evangelicals liked Obama himself slightly more than older (over 35 years old), 29%-25%. But stunningly, the younger evangelicals were more likely to identify themselves as Republicans. 28% of the over 35 group identify themselves as Democrats while 19% of the younger evangelicals do.. 70% called themselves Republican, 5 pionts higher than for the older group!
Ideologically, they do describe themselves as more moderate than the older evangelicals — except on one issue, abortion, where they share the same views. Is that why the younger voters, despite their ideological moderation, haven’t signed on with the Democrats or Obama yet? What else could it be?
So much for the huge wave of young Obamagelicals.
On other interesting giblet: young evangelical women are considerably cooler on Sarah Palin than their elders. 65% of those over 30 liked her, while 46 under 30 did.