How the Faithful Voted: Political Alignments and the Religious Divide in the 2004 Elections

In the two weeks since the elections, pollsters and pundits have sought to account for values voters—the 22 percent of the electorate (80 percent of whom voted for President Bush) who said that “moral values” was the issue that mattered most to them in deciding how to vote.

Participants in this discussion, sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Brookings Institution, will discuss what the election’s outcome says about the religious and cultural divide in the American electorate; how Bush captured the Catholic vote; the growing political clout of evangelicals; and whether religion helps explain how Latinos and African Americans voted.

Panelists will also comment on a new Pew Research Center poll that examines the influence of religion on the 2004 election.