Poll: Most GOP Evangelicals Could Go Third Party

By Bob Ellis on October 31st, 2007

This can’t be good news for the liberal Republican Party “establishment” types.

More than half of white evangelical Republicans would consider voting for a conservative third-party candidate should the 2008 presidential race pit Hillary Rodham Clinton against Rudy Giuliani, a poll said Wednesday.

According to the poll, 55 percent of white evangelical Republicans said they would consider a conservative who ran as a third-party candidate. Forty-two percent said they would not.
Evangelicals comprise 34 percent of GOP and Republican-leaning voters, according to Pew. They are divided about evenly among Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

There’s a relatively easy way for the Republican establishment to prevent 34% of their base from deserting: don’t support the nomination of a nominee who doesn’t hold to the critical Republican positions on the defense of life and marriage.

I wonder if they’re listening…or if they’re still convinced that this dissatisfaction with the party is isolated to a few provincial Bible-thumpers? I suppose if they want to throw away the White House and Congress next year, they can keep on thinking that way.

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