A recent two-part nationwide email survey by Crosswalk.com, the world’s largest Christian audience online, reveals that Republican candidate John McCain has secured the evangelical vote following his announcement of vice presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin.
In the weeks preceding the VP pick, McCain held 73% of the evangelical vote and just one week later, was able to gain 7% of the evangelical vote reducing the number of undecided evangelicals by half.
According to the follow-up survey, McCain also gained 8% of the Independent evangelical vote – an increase from 54% to 62%
This survey was sent by email to Crosswalk.com subscribers and was not an online poll. Crosswalk say they ensure statistical relevance of the email based both on the sample size and the methodology. The respondents included in this survey were chosen randomly and proportionally from a pool of subscribers for which geographic data was verified and included all 50 states. Based on the sampling method and the sample size, the estimated margin of error is +/- 1.9%.
I will be scheduling interviews with Chad Nykamp, Salem Web Network Director of Marketing, whose previous experience as radio spokesperson with the Family Research Council and work with one of the 96 presidential campaigns has given him knowledgeable insight into the evangelical vote. We will continue to sift through the survey data and distribute interesting facts such as breakdown of evangelical vote by age and gender, ranking of issues important to evangelist, etc.
By Kristie Rutzel
