Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Romney’s Mormon Faith Likely a Factor in Primaries, Not in a General Election

Religion and the 2012 Election

November 23, 2011

About half of all voters, and 60% of evangelical Republicans, know that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. The former Massachusetts governor's religion has implications for his nomination run, but not for the general election should he be nominated as his party's standard bearer.

White evangelical Protestants -- a key element of the GOP electoral base -- are more inclined than the public as a whole to view Mormonism as a non-Christian faith. And this view is linked to opinions about Mitt Romney: Republicans who say Mormonism is not a Christian religion are less likely to support Romney for the GOP nomination and offer a less favorable assessment of him generally. But they seem prepared to overwhelmingly back him in a run against Obama in the general election.

These are the principal findings from a new national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted Nov. 9-14 among 2,001 adults, including 1,576 registered voters. In the race for the GOP nomination, Romney trails Herman Cain by nine points (26% to 17%) among white evangelical Republican and Republican-leaning voters. Romney leads among white mainline Protestant Republicans (26% to 17% over Cain) and runs about even with Cain among white Catholic Republican voters (26% Romney, 23% Cain).

Read the full report for more findings on these subjects:

• The latest poll figures on the race for the Republican nomination
• The public's view of the Mormon faith
• How religion and the Tea Party affect Romney's backing in the primaries
• Support for Romney and President Obama among different religious groups
• Personal images of the 2012 candidates among religious voters
• Religious voters' perceptions of Romney's traits and those of Herman Cain
• How much religious voters know about the other candidates' religions

See also: Our profiles of each candidate's religious background