Evangelical, Social Conservative Turnout Highest Ever Recorded in Mid-Term Election

White evangelicals comprise nearly 30% of all voters, Voted 78% for GOP

52% of all Tea Party Supporters are Born-Again Evangelical Christians, According to Post-Election Survey

DULUTH, Ga., Nov. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- According to a post-election survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for the Faith and Freedom Coalition, the largest single constituency in the electorate in the 2010 midterm elections was self-identified evangelicals, who comprised 29% of the vote and cast an astonishing 78% of their ballots for Republican candidates.

The turnout by conservative people of faith represented a 5 percent increase in evangelical turnout over 2006---enough to eliminate Democratic gains in that year---and was the largest ever recorded in a midterm election.  Because the evangelical vote is concentrated in the South and the Midwest, these voters had an exaggerated impact on yesterday's GOP gains, contributing to the vast majority of U.S. Senate and House victories by Republican candidates. 

The survey also found that 52% of all self-identified members of the Tea Party movement are conservative evangelicals.  This is consistent with polling data by other organizations conducted before Election Day.

Evangelicals were joined by frequently-church-attending Roman Catholic voters, who constituted 12 percent of the vote and cast 58 percent of their ballots for Republican candidates, as opposed to 40 percent of their ballots for Democrats, according to CNN exit polling.

"People of faith turned out in the highest numbers in a midterm election we have ever seen, and they made an invaluable contribution to the historic results, including the election of a Republican majority in the House and significant gains in U.S. Senate seats, governorships, and hundreds of state legislative seats and local offices," said Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.  "This survey, along with numerous exit polls, makes clear that those who ignore or disregard social conservative voters and their issues do so at their own peril."

The Faith and Freedom Coalition made a total of 58.8 million voter contacts to social and fiscal conservative voters in 2010, including 16 million voter guides, 8 million pieces of mail, and 15 million GOTV calls.  FFC has 400,000 members and supporters and chapters operating in 24 states.

SOURCE Faith and Freedom Coalition