{"id":28286,"date":"2016-02-09T09:36:18","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T15:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=28286"},"modified":"2016-02-10T09:55:33","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T15:55:33","slug":"god-is-secondary-in-new-hampshire-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/god-is-secondary-in-new-hampshire-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"God is secondary in New Hampshire primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jay Bouchard<\/strong><\/p>\n

MANCHESTER, NH\u2014<\/strong>Tom Rettberg reflects the historical nature of New Hampshire voters\u2014a fickle electorate notoriously tough to impress.<\/p>\n

Standing in a crowded gymnasium waiting to hear Marco Rubio speak, Rettberg, an undecided voter from Weare, NH, described how he has spent months creating a comprehensive spreadsheet ranking each candidate in the Republican primary field. He\u2019s evaluating the candidates on issues like economics, potential Supreme Court appointments, immigration, and national security.<\/p>\n

Though he is a self-described Christian, Rettberg said his spreadsheet features no columns ranking the candidates\u2019 religion or matters of faith.<\/p>\n

He notes he has great respect for candidates who demonstrate their faith on the campaign trail, but said it\u2019s \u201cnot a high priority\u201d when he considers the many factors influencing his decision.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Voters like Rettberg mark a key distinction between New Hampshire and Iowa, where last week Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas won the caucuses, albeit controversially, by appealing to evangelical Christians.<\/p>\n

New Hampshire boasts a vastly different political, economic, and social landscape than Iowa, and historically voters here do not make decisions based on religious preferences.<\/p>\n

When Cruz recited 2 Chronicles 7:14 at a rally in Davenport, IA last weekend, nearly everyone in the crowded church recited with him the lines from memory. But in Peterborough on Sunday, nobody joined in as Cruz quoted the same verse, which calls on Christians to humble themselves and seek God’s healing.<\/div>\n

\u201cIowa Republican winners don\u2019t matter here,\u201d said Dale Kuehne, a professor of political science at St. Anselm College and former director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.<\/p>\n

Kuehne, who also is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Covenant Church, noted that \u201cif the most Christian candidate wins New Hampshire, it won\u2019t be because they are Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marco
Marco Rubio addresses a lively crowd at Hood Middle School in Derry, NH on Friday Jan. 5. (Jay Bouchard\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Feb. 4 Gallup poll<\/a> reported that New Hampshire ranks as the \u201cleast religious\u201d state in the United States. According to the poll, only 20 percent of respondents consider themselves \u201cvery religious,\u201d and 55 percent identify themselves \u201cnonreligious.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, 39 percent of respondents in Iowa considered themselves \u201cvery religious,\u201d and only 32 percent identified as \u201cnonreligious.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Pew Research Center<\/a>, 59 percent of adults in New Hampshire are affiliated with Christian churches, 26 percent of whom are Catholic.<\/p>\n

What distinguishes New Hampshire from other states, though, is that among the religious voters, typically most aren\u2019t looking for candidates who mirror their own faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people in New Hampshire don\u2019t like the idea of religion as a political commodity,\u201d said the Rev. Jerome Day, pastor of St. Raphael\u2019s Parish in Manchester and member of the St. Anselm Monastery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope that people would have faith in mind as they vote,\u201d Day said, \u201cbut it\u2019s a well-known axiom that New Hampshire voters vote with their pocketbooks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Supporters
Supporters of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rally on the campus of St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH before Saturday night’s debate. (Jay Bouchard\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kuehne described an important class in the state he calls \u201cblue-collar Catholics,\u201d\u2014voters who, while religious, make decisions based on economic interests and other issues rather than voting their religion.<\/p>\n

Thelma Poitras, a Catholic Cruz backer from Goshen, NH, is among this class. She is a public school teacher and her husband has struggled to find steady work since the 2008 financial crisis. She said that she goes to church every Sunday and that her faith is very important to her. But she added that her attraction to Cruz is rooted in his loyalty to the Constitution and his fiscal conservatism.<\/p>\n

\u201cEconomics is more important [in this election] to me than religion,\u201d she said at a Cruz rally before Saturday night\u2019s debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester.<\/p>\n

While Cruz\u2019s faith impresses her, Poitras said that she would support him regardless of his religious authenticity.<\/p>\n

Kuehne noted that blue-collar Catholics like Poitras make New Hampshire a particularly hard state in which to predict political outcomes. This class of voters often scrutinizes candidates in a way evangelical voters don\u2019t and this is one of the reasons New Hampshire is typically a swing state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe swing vote is often the blue-collar Catholic vote,\u201d Kuehne said. \u201cEvangelicals don\u2019t swing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuehne\u2019s observation is supported by historical precedent. In 2012, Rick Santorum, a devout Catholic, won the Iowa caucus but only managed a fourth place tie in New Hampshire. In 2008, Mike Huckabee, a Protestant minister, won in Iowa but finished a disappointing third in the Granite State. Neither went on to claim the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n

According to a recent WMUR\/CNN poll<\/a>, Ted Cruz may join Huckabee and Santorum as the latest Iowa republican winner who fails to gain momentum in New Hampshire. He\u2019s currently polling in third place, behind frontrunner Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.<\/p>\n

But despite disappointing poll numbers, Cruz has not been shy about demonstrating his faith to New Hampshire voters. In a town hall meeting in Peterborough on Sunday, Cruz recited Old Testament scripture and asked voters to \u201clift the country up in prayer,\u201d the same lines he used a week ago at his rallies in Iowa.<\/p>\n

When Cruz recited 2 Chronicles 7:14 at a rally in Davenport, IA last weekend, nearly everyone in the crowded church recited with him the lines from memory. But in Peterborough on Sunday, nobody joined in as Cruz quoted the same verse, which calls on Christians to humble themselves and seek God’s healing.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, when Cruz mentioned religion the day before the primary in Raymond, NH, two anti-religious protesters staged an exorcism with cardboard crosses<\/a> before being removed from the event, according to Vermont public radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Cruz has not significantly altered his campaign strategy in New Hampshire, religious ambivalence and recent polls point to the key difference between the first-in-the-nation primary and the first-in-the-nation caucus.<\/p>\n

In Iowa, overtly Christian candidates find traction among evangelical voters, but in New Hampshire, where the voters are more skeptical, less religious, and likely to swing, candidates like Cruz often are disappointed come election day.<\/p>\n

Photo at top:Hundreds of voters listen to Sen. Ted Cruz speak at a town hall meeting in Peterborough, NH on Sunday, Jan. 7. (Jay Bouchard\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jay Bouchard MANCHESTER, NH\u2014Tom Rettberg reflects the historical nature of New Hampshire voters\u2014a fickle electorate notoriously tough to impress. Standing in a crowded gymnasium waiting to hear Marco Rubio speak, Rettberg, an undecided voter from Weare, NH, described how he has spent months creating a comprehensive spreadsheet ranking each candidate in the Republican primary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":28290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452,1145,675,585],"tags":[1176,482,1174,1175,1171,1172,1173],"class_list":["post-28286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-chicago","category-election-2016","category-social-justice","category-winter-2016","tag-cruz","tag-election","tag-faith-based","tag-iowa","tag-new-hampshire","tag-primary","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nGod is secondary in New Hampshire primary - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/god-is-secondary-in-new-hampshire-primary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God is secondary in New Hampshire primary - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jay Bouchard MANCHESTER, NH\u2014Tom Rettberg reflects the historical nature of New Hampshire voters\u2014a fickle electorate notoriously tough to impress. 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