Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Are Republicans Ready Now for a Mormon President?

The Polls Show Trouble

by Carroll Doherty, Associate Director, Pew Research Center for the People & Press
Special to the New York Times
July 5, 2011

Overall, being a Mormon is hardly an asset for presidential candidates, but it is not a deal-breaker for most Americans. A quarter of Americans say they would be less likely to support a presidential candidate who is Mormon, while 68% say it would not make a difference. For perspective, about the same number say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who has used marijuana in the past.

But an important group within the Republican base, white evangelical Protestants, is more uncomfortable with the idea of a Mormon candidate than are other Republicans. Among all Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 31% of white evangelicals say they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon; that compares with 15% of other Republicans, according to a May survey. This gap is as large as it was four years ago.

At that time, our polling found that white evangelical Protestants were more likely than non-evangelical white Protestants to view the Mormon religion as very different from their own. And just 40% of all white evangelicals viewed Mormons as Christians; far more non-evangelical white Protestants and Catholics said that Mormons were Christians.

These findings have potentially troubling implications for Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney, particularly when one considers the G.O.P. primary landscape. Exit polls from 2008 show that 60% of those who voted in the G.O.P. Iowa caucuses, and an identical percentage of Republican voters in the South Carolina primary, were evangelicals.

Read other debaters' takes on "Are Republicans Ready for a Mormon President?" at the New York Times' Room for Debate discussion.