Religion and the 2012 South Carolina Republican Primary

by the Pew Forum of Religion and Life

In his South Carolina Republican primary win, Newt Gingrich received strong support from born-again/evangelical Christians and from voters who said that it is important to them that a candidate shares their religious beliefs. Gingrich also won a plurality of votes among Protestants (42%); Catholics in the National Election Pool exit poll were more evenly split between Gingrich (37%) and Mitt Romney (29%).

Gingrich was the clear winner among the two-thirds of South Carolina primary voters who described themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians, earning 44% support. Romney (22%) and Rick Santorum (21%) finished far behind Gingrich among evangelical voters, while Ron Paul received 13% support from this group.
Read the findings here