Turning Faith-Based Voters Blue

If you’ve been following the 2008 Presidential battle, you may have noticed that the Democratic front runners have been discussing their faith much more than in previous election cycles. According to The The Hill’s Alexander Bolton, the party as a whole is targeting religious Americans. The column states that DNC Chairman Howard Dean has “embark[ed] on an ambitious program to win faith-driven votes.” Bolton goes on to say that “in 2006, the party set up pilot programs in six states to experiment with the best way to capture religiously motivated voters. The goal was not to alter policies to be more appealing. Instead, it was to emphasize that Democratic priorities, such as opposition to the war in Iraq, environmental conservation and expanded government subsidies for healthcare, were important to Democratic candidates because of their faith and values.”

If successful, where could this strategy have the largest returns? Probably in states with high concentrations of religious residents, right? Here is a map of religious adherence rates, and you can see that the right half of the country is lit up, with hot spots in the Midwest and Texas. While it’s doubtful the Dems will take Texas, the Midwest is much more of a battleground area. Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin were trending Republican through 2006, so if the Democrats can steal some faith voters, it could be significant.

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It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will the Christian population remember Dean’s knock on the GOP, calling them “the white Christian party?” And how will the Democrats’ embracing of the gay agenda register with the more fundamental practitioners?