If prejudice against Mormons like Mitt Romney or Catholics like Rick Santorum were going to play a key role anywhere, it was more likely to be the South Carolina Republican primary, more than Iowa, New Hampshire or the upcoming Florida primary, but so far, religious prejudice does not appear to be playing much of a role in those contests, nor in the most recent Economist/YouGov poll of Republican primary and caucus participants nationwide [link to archives: January 14-17, 2012].
Republican primary and caucus voters do not care for Mormons as a group—28% have a favorable opinion, 26% unfavorable (with the rest neutral, mixed or not sure in their opinions). Two-in-three know for a fact that Romney is Mormon. Views about Christians (59% favorable-10% unfavorable) and Jews (46% favorable-8% unfavorable) are much more favorable among Republican primary and caucus voters. Among those voters, 52% believe conservative Catholic Rick Santorum is either Christian (28%) or Catholic (24%) in his religious affiliation, with 1% thinking he may be Mormon.
Among those Republican primary and caucus voters, 19% believe President Obama is a Muslim, which they don’t like: 16% are favorable and 41% are unfavorable toward Muslims as a group.
| OPINION OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS & PERCEPTION OF CANDIDATES’ RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian | Jewish | Catholic | Mormon | Muslim | |||||
What is Romney’s religion........ | 4 | - | 3 | 65 | 1 | |||||
What is Obama’s religion.......... | 50 | - | 2 | - | 19 | |||||
What is Santorum’s religion...... | 28 | 1 | 24 | 1 | - | |||||
Feelings toward religious group | FAV | UNFAV | FAV | UNFAV | FAV | UNFAV | FAV | UNFAV | FAV | UNFAV |
| 59 | 10 | 46 | 8 | NA | NA | 28 | 26 | 16 | 41 |
