Abstract
Perhaps no religious group received more attention during the 2012 presidential campaign than Roman Catholics. Both the Obama and Romney campaigns viewed this group as crucially important to victory, and went hard after their support. In this chapter we examine the place of Roman Catholicism in the 2012 presidential contest. After reviewing the historical role of Catholic voters in American elections, we discuss the involvement of the American Catholic bishops in US elections, with particular attention to their highly visible actions during the 2012 campaign. Finally, we discuss the numerous ways the Obama and Romney campaigns tailored their appeals to this critical group of American voters. Our analyses find that as a group American Catholics are quintessential swing voters, and as such are highly attractive to both major parties. At the same time, American Catholics are a highly variegated constituency, with significant internal divisions related to religiosity, ideology, ethnicity, and social class. These internal divisions make it unlikely that either party will be able to corner the market on the Catholic vote, and also make it difficult for the American bishops to shape the voting behavior of their flock to the degree that they might wish.
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Notes
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© 2014 R. Ward Holder and Peter B. Josephson
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Powell, R.J., Brewer, M.D. (2014). Courting the Catholic Vote: Obama, Romney, and the US Catholic Bishops in the 2012 Presidential Election. In: Holder, R.W., Josephson, P.B. (eds) The American Election 2012. Elections, Voting, Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137389220_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137389220_18
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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