Abstract

Kerry & the Evangelicals

We seem to have arrived at a moment when the media has "rediscovered" evangelicals in the United States. The question is whether or not Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and the Democratic Party will also take notice and stop conceding the evangelical vote to the Republicans. The conventional wisdom is that evangelicals--whose ranks include fundamentalists, pentecostals, charismatics and holiness people--will turn out in large numbers for President George W. Bush, whom many evangelicals regard as one of their own. But evangelicalism is a diverse and variegated movement, one that includes many African-Americans and a growing number of Hispanics. The evangelical vote for Bush in November, therefore, is not an inevitability. Kerry's election prospects may well hinge on his ability to pry some evangelical votes away from Bush. A Kerry administration could do more to discourage abortion by undertaking a campaign to encourage contraception and adoption, similar to campaigns directed against smoking or alcohol and spousal abuse. A pledge to do so would get the attention of evangelical voters.