IMPACT ON ROMNEY

Evangelical voters bolster Huckabee in Southern states

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee greeted a poll worker before he voted yesterday in North Little Rock, Ark. (Rick Gershon/Getty Images)

Email|Print| Text size – + By Michael Kranish

Globe Staff / February 6, 2008

WASHINGTON - Evangelical voters played a major role in Super Tuesday's Republican primaries, especially in the South, providing a huge boost for former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and possibly costing Mitt Romney victory in some states, analysts said.

Nationally, Huckabee, Romney and Senator John McCain roughly split the evangelical vote, exit polls showed yesterday. But in the South, the vote among Christian conservatives was significant, and Huckabee drew the largest percentage of them by far.

For example, in Alabama, 78 percent of GOP primary voters said they are evangelical Christians, and 48 percent of them supported Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister. Their votes helped Huckabee win the state, reviving his struggling campaign.

An ebullient Huckabee, speaking to cheering supporters, declared that his strength in the South has made the Republican primary campaign a two-man race, "and we're in it."

Huckabee also won large shares of the evangelical vote in Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri.

In other parts of the country, the percentage of conservative Christian voters was smaller, and they spread their support among the three candidates. For example, in Massachusetts, only 20 percent of Republican primary voters described themselves as evangelicals, but 60 percent of them favored former governor Romney, according to exit polls. In Illinois, meanwhile, 42 percent of Republican voters said they were evangelical Christians, and 38 percent supported McCain.

The evangelical vote made the biggest difference in the South. In Georgia, 64 percent of Republican voters identified themselves as evangelical Christians, with Huckabee winning 41 percent of such voters, followed by 28 percent for Romney and 26 percent for McCain, according to exit polls.

The fight between Huckabee and Romney for Christian conservatives was expected to be helpful for McCain, who is viewed by some evangelicals with disdain. Romney, meanwhile, also may have been hurt by concerns about his Mormon faith. A Gallup poll in December found that 18 percent of Republicans would not vote for a Mormon for president.

"There is a huge paradox that evangelicals have come to dominate the Republican primary strategies and nonetheless the result" could help McCain, "who is not considered an evangelical," said Peter Woolley, a professor of political science and pollster at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. McCain referred to some evangelical leaders during his 2000 campaign for the party's nomination as "agents of intolerance" but has strived for their support in the current contest.

The first sign of Huckabee's strength among conservative Christians came early yesterday when he won a convention of West Virginia Republicans. Romney had won the first-round vote, but he did not meet the required 50 percent threshold. Huckabee won in a second ballot.

Romney waged a fierce battle for the votes of evangelicals and other Christian conservatives across the country, especially in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee, four states considered the buckle of the Bible Belt. Romney had hoped to take advantage of doubts about McCain.

For example, the Romney campaign yesterday pointed to a statement by James Dobson, the leader of a Christian conservative group, Focus on the Family. Dobson said McCain is not a true conservative and he could not vote for him under any circumstances.

"I'm deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, who voted for embryonic stem-cell research to kill nascent human beings," Dobson said. But he did not say whether he would vote for Romney.

Huckabee, meanwhile, questioned Romney's opposition to abortion, a bedrock issue among conservative Christians. "My voters are voting for me because I have a consistent prolife record," unlike Romney, he said on a recent campaign swing in Georgia.

When he ran for governor in Massachusetts in 2002, Romney said he supported abortion rights, but since then has said his thinking had evolved to believe that abortion is wrong.

The potential significance of the evangelical vote was made clear during the Iowa caucuses, where they helped propel Huckabee to a surprise win.