Economy trumps abortion among Latino Catholics

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 11/7/2008 7:00:00 AM

The head of the Catholic League says there was only a marginal difference in the amount of Catholic voters who supported Barack Obama and those who voted for John Kerry in 2004, and that difference can be attributed solely to the struggling economy.

Exit polls show president-elect Barack Obama received the support of 54 percent of Catholics, while in 2004 John Kerry received only 46 percent of the Catholic vote. Exit polls also indicate that two-thirds of Hispanics supported Obama.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 68 percent of all Latinos in the U.S. consider themselves Roman Catholic. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, says the economic concerns of Latino voters trumped issues such as abortion.
 
"People saw what happened in September with the financial meltdown. They got their 401(k) statements in October and they took it out, rightly or wrongly, on the Republicans for this," he contends. "That means that a lot of people, if they were driven by values, would have gone for McCain; but because the economy eclipsed all issues at this point in our history, many of them said, 'Listen, I've got to put money in my pocket, put food on the table, and I'm going to have to go with somebody who may do a better job than the Republicans.'"

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Results from our related poll

When people of faith vote, should they give priority

to economic concerns (such as jobs) over moral concerns (such as abortion)?

 
According to Donohue, Latinos are generally family-oriented and pro-life. In fact, he notes in a press release the importance of the Catholic vote in the three states that passed constitutional amendments limiting marriage to one man and one woman. But when it comes to questions of an economic nature and social discrimination, he says, Latinos view the Democrats as representing the underdog.

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