How religious Americans are remains a key predictor of their political identification, though the pattern is strongest among non-Hispanic whites, according to a poll by Gallup.
Some 49% of very religious Americans who constitute 41% of overall Americans adults identify as Republicans or lean towards the Republican Party. Only 36% of those categorized as very religious said they were either Democrats or leaned toward the Democratic Party.
Among nonreligious Americans who represented 30% of Americans in the first six months of 2014, more than a half (52%) said they were either Democrats or Democratic leaners compared with only 29% of nonreligious Americans saying they had a Republican preference.
Over the past six years, how religious someone is has always been a key factor in determining political affiliation or identification. But the pattern doesn’t hold in black households. As many as 77% of very religious black Americans said they were also either Democrats or Democratic sympathizers, even more than the 73% of nonreligious black Americans said they are either Democrats or lean toward the Democratic party. Blacks tend to be the most Democratic racial or ethnic group in the U.S.
Among Hispanics and Asians, Republicans are more likely to be very religious, but overall both groups tend to lean toward the Democratic Party.
“From a practical politics standpoint, Republicans face the challenge of expanding their party’s appeal beyond the minority of Americans who are very religious, and appealing to Hispanics and Asians given that even the most religious of these growing groups tilt Democratic, albeit not as much as others in these groups who are less religious,” said Gallup’s Frank Newport.