THE CHRISTIAN COALITION AND THE GOP: A WINNING
COMBINATION?
The Christian Coalition’s influence in Republican primary politics, as well as the general
election, negatively impacted Republican candidates. In the Republican presidential
primaries, Bob Dole embraced the Christian Coalition leadership and its political agenda.
When he tried to move back to the center for the general election, it was too late — he
couldn’t escape his affiliation with the Christian Coalition.
A post-election poll* conducted by American Viewpoint (an Alexandria, VA based
Republican polling firm) confirmed Dole’s affiliation predicament. When respondents were
asked hypothetically what impact the Christian Coalition’s support of Bob Dole had on
their voting decision, a majority of voters claimed such an endorsement would make them
"less likely" to support Senator Dole. There were also some interesting demographic
breakdowns of this question:
· Among the electorally crucuial group of Independent voters, 33% said thy were less
likely, while only 22% said they would be more likely to support a Christian Coalition
endorsed Bob Dole.
· In New England and the Pacific region, by a margin of 20%, Dole was less likely to be
the voters’ choice with the Christian Coalition’s support. While in the South, the only
region where the Christian Coalition support provided a net gain, the gain was only 4%.
· Among urban voters there was a 23% point disadvantage.
Men, women (including working women, Republican women, and women of every age
group) frequent voters, Republicans, Democrats, Independents and voters in every region
of the country believe the religious right is too dominant within the Republican Party.
The same effect can be seen in a number of high profile federal and state-wide primary
races where religious political extremists were successful in electing their endorsed
candidates in the primaries, but then these primary winners lost in the general election.
Examples include Illinois Senate candidate Al Salvi and Georgia Senate candidate Guy
Milner, both of whom were defeated in the general election due to their extreme positions
and their close links to groups such as the Christian Coalition.
These defeats support former New Hampshire Senator Warren B. Rudman's warning that,
"the Republican Party must not join forces with people whose views are so repugnant to
mainstream America."
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