Poll: Very religious whites lean to GOP

PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 31 (UPI) -- More than twice as many very religious white Americans identify with or lean toward the Republican Party than those who identify as Democrats, a poll found.

Sixty-two percent of respondents in a Gallup poll who identified themselves as "very religious" said they identify with the GOP compared with 27 percent of the very religious who said they leaned toward the Democratic Party, a Gallup release said Monday.

Among non-religious whites the percentages reversed, with respondents more likely to affiliate with the Democratic Party by a 17 percentage-point margin.

For white Americans who identified themselves as moderately religious, 48 percent said they leaned Republican against 36 percent who identified with Democrats.

Gallup Daily tracked data from more than 116,000 telephone interviews with adults 18 and over from July 1 through Oct. 26 with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.