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SALT LAKE CITY — If you’re a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the odds that you affiliate with the Republican Party are rather high, according to a new study.
In a new study on party affiliation released Wednesday, the Pew Research Center found that individuals who identify as Mormon are the most likely, above any other identifying factor — race, education, religion, generation — to lean Republican.
The study found that 70 percent of surveyed members of the LDS Church lean toward the Republican Party, while only 22 percent leaned toward the Democratic Party. That numbers is down 5 percent from its highest point in 2011, when 75 percent of Mormons leaned Republican. Mormons leaning toward the Democratic Party has remained relatively static since Pew Research started tracking political ideology, with its highest point being 34 percent in 1999.
When asked how Mormons identify politically, 49 percent said they identified as Republican, while only 12 percent identified as Democratic. The remaining 35 percent identified as independent.
The LDS Church has consistently maintained its neutrality in politics, saying: “The Church’s mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not to elect politicians. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is neutral in matters of party politics. This applies in all of the many nations in which it is established.”
Although the study says members of the LDS Church lean Republican, the church says it will not “direct its members as to which candidate or party they should give their votes to.”
The Pew Research Center found that being Mormon was the highest identifying factor for the Republican Party. The next highest identifying factor supporting the Republican Party was white evangelical Protestants, where 68 percent of those surveyed said they leaned Republican, followed up by white southerners (55 percent); white men with some college (54 percent); being white (49 percent); and the “silent generation” (47 percent), which is individuals 69-86 years old.
On the Democratic side, the strongest identifying factor was race — those identifying as black— at 80 percent leaning toward the Democratic Party. The next highest factor supporting the Democratic Party was Asians (65 percent), post-graduate women (64 percent), those unaffiliated with a religious sect (61 percent), Jews (61 percent), Hispanics (56 percent), and the Millennial generation (51 percent).
