Huckabee Fails to Attract Catholic Voters
Deal Hudson writes at InsideCatholic:
The Catholic voter problem that surfaced in Iowa has followed Gov. Mike Huckabee to New Hampshire. In Iowa, Huckabee received strong support in predominately Evangelical counties, but his support fell sharply in counties with large numbers of Catholic voters.
There was no improvement in New Hampshire for the former governor of Arkansas. Sen. John McCain attracted the most Catholic support, 38 percent, while Huckabee received only 8 percent. In other words, McCain garnered almost five Catholic votes for every one going to Huckabee.
Huckabee did almost twice as well with Protestants as he did with Catholics -- but not as well as McCain, who received the most Protestant votes (40 percent). McCain nearly attracted the same number of self-identified born-again voters as Huckabee, 30 percent to 33 percent.
It's clear that Catholics, thus far, have not been charmed by Mike Huckabee. Some might argue that New Hampshire is too liberal for the former Baptist minister, but New Hampshire Catholics certainly are not liberal -- they voted for Bush in 2004 over Kerry, 52 to 47 percent.
So why is Huckabee failing to connect with Catholic voters?
[More]
Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
GetReligion on "Public Radio, [Huckabee] and the Eucharist
Huckabee Increases Catholic Outreach Efforts
Custos Fidei: "Evidence of Mike Huckabee's Catholic Problem"
Deal Hudson on "Mike Huckabee's Anti-Catholic Problem"
National Catholic Register Asks: "Will Brownbackers Back Huckabee?"
Huckabee Campaign Criticizes Pope for Long Vacation, Extended Stay in Summer Residence
Huckabee Campaign: "How Dare Sam Brownback Take Time Off from Campaigning for His 25th Anniversary?"
Deal Hudson Rips Evangelical Pastor (a Former Catholic) for Disparaging Sen. Brownback's Catholicism
Labels: Elections, Republicans, The Catholic Vote, Voting Your Values
posted by Pro Ecclesia 12:39 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Why not? I can answer that.
We aren't pleased with "Christian Leader" Huckabee because we are not electing a Christian Leader; he is elected by the college of Cardinals, not the Electoral College.
In short, Huckabee needs to prove he is not a bigot, tough job after Iowa, or else we are splitting our vote among Fred, Mitt, and McCain
I think the problem is that not enough Catholics are pro-life above all else. Too many have misunderstood Cardinal Bernardin's "seamless garment" concept to mean that abortion is secondary to other issues, and their pastors---who are overwhelmingly Democrat, I'm afraid---have not done much to dissuade them from that. Anyone who has devoted 35 years to the pro-life movement, as I have, is probably going to support, as I do, the only candidate in the whole line-up who is 100% pro-life, whose whole reason for getting involved in politics in the first place was the issue of abortion. That man, the only candidate who is as pro-life as I am, is Mike Huckabee.
Too many have misunderstood Cardinal Bernardin's "seamless garment" concept to mean that abortion is secondary to other issues,
Or there also those of us who, while completely not buying into the seamless garment crap, also acknowledge that there are other issues. So, while I applaud Mike Huckabee for his committment to the pro-life cause, I also know that a) he is unacceptable on a wide range of other issues that matter to me, and b) there are other GOP pro-life candidates, especially the NRTL endorsed Fred Thompson, that are better overall candidates.
Mark, tell me why you think Huckabee is a bigot and what he needs to prove and why? As I have stated on my web site the good minister Hagee is even on McCains webs site!!! These reckless charges of bigotry are getting old. TO be honest and maybe it is the still Evangleical DNA in me but I am seeing far more anti Evangelical bigoty out there. IN fact the opening paragraph. One day he is the Protestant Pope and the next day his critics say he is populist Huey long. I get confused what the story line is. I note this sounds a lot like the criticism Bush got 8 years ago
THat being said I am not too worried about Huckabee and the Catholic vote. Huckabee first off did not realy catch fire till a few weeks back. As to New Hampshire he was 6 place a few weeks back and finished third. He spend most of his time in Iowa.
I find there is a strange link between the times and resources on spends in a State and the votes they get.That goes for Catholic voters too.
Huckabee did not win the Evanglical vote by the way in NH. That went to McCain. But no one is screaming headlines HUCKABEE LOSING EVANGELICAL VOTE.
I will be very happy to answer any questions as to Huckabee and Catholics. I have a much larger goal too of seeing charges of Anti Catholicisim not being done with reckless abandon.
As the campaign get more funds(we hope) there will be more outreach.
In the demographics are a part of it. A catholic in Louisiana is I suspect a tad different from lets say a Catholic in Lafayette. That is more conservative on the whole.
As to NH further, I suspect that a lot of voters that did not like Romney united behind McCain. Of course McCain had been in New Hampshire like Huckabee had been in Iowa.
I see nothing in Huckabee or his record that would turn off the important Bush 04 Catholic vote the that Republicans need to get back
I don't know why us orthodox Catholics (and our numbers are small anyway) are not united for Huckabee. We should be. The pro-life movement is very divided, we can not seem to agree on strategy or candidates. This is really hurting us.
Mike is the real thing for anyone that is Catholic. He values human dignity at all stages of life, including embryonic stem cell research . Can McCain say that ? Mike's social stand always has taken a human dignity position in all of his past history as Governor of this state. The only Governor that I can recall ever participating in a March for Life rally .
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