Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Exit Polls: Romney Won Catholics In Michigan

10:12 PM EST

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the Catholic vote in the Michigan Republican primary, according to exit polls from CBS News. [ http://www.cbsnews.com/primary-election-results-2012/exit.shtml?state=MI&race=P&jurisdiction=0&party=R ] Romney got 43 percent of those GOP voters polled, versus 37 percent for former Senator Rick Santorum, a Catholic himself. Santorum did much better with evangelical Christian voters, crushing Romney 50 to 32 percent among those who identified as such. More context on relgious voters from the New York Times: [ http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/parsing-the-exit-polls-in-michigan-and-arizona/ ]

Intensifying his pursuit of socially conservative voters in recent days, Mr. Santorum, who is Catholic, defended the role of religion in public life this weekend, dismissing John F. Kennedy’s 1960 call for the separation of religion and politics, and saying that college campuses in America are not a “neutral setting” for people of faith.

In Michigan, nearly 4 in 10 primary voters are white Christian evangelicals, according to early exit poll results, and about 3 in 10 are Catholic.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/exit-polls-romney-won-catholics-in-michigan

so much for Rick.