Ohio evangelicals surged for McCain and Obama

Steve Waldman, editor-in-chief of Beliefnet, takes a look at Ohio exit poll data and finds that evangelicals turned out en mass, more so than in 2004. But the results were surprising:

The huge victory for Obama in Ohio reflected gains among all religious groups. He improved upon Kerry’s showing among white Catholics, Protestants in general and evangelicals.

But here’s the most amazing part: Born Again Christians made up a significantly greater portion of the electorate in 2008 than in 2004 AND Obama did better than Kerry. The assumption had been that if there was a big increase in evangelicals, that would be great news for McCain.

They made up 25% of the Ohio electorate in 2004; 30% now. Bush won 76%-24% McCain won 70%-29%

This means that SOME of the evangelical surge was for Obama.

Considering the hate I saw from some Ohio voters at a McCain-Palin rally, this is encouraging.