Sen. Amy Klobuchar outperformed expectations at the New Hampshire primaries this week, and her secret weapon isn’t just that she’s more likable than Elizabeth Warren. She’s nabbed the centrist vote, and she excels with religious voters.
Among voters who regularly attend religious services, Klobuchar is the most popular of the Democratic candidates, beating Bernie Sanders (16%), Pete Buttigieg (16%), and Joe Biden (13%). Warren fares far worse with religious voters, picking up 7% with those who attend religious services once a week or more.
The results are intriguing considering Buttigieg has been most vocal about his faith on the campaign trail, using it to justify everything from abortion to the minimum wage to his own political party generally.
For her part, Klobuchar has taken a more subtle approach. A member of the United Church of Christ, Klobuchar hails from the same religious denomination as former President Barack Obama. But unlike the “Great Divider,” Klobuchar has used her rhetoric to emphasize unity.
Incredibly, she even insisted this week that pro-life activists have a place in the Democratic Party, something other candidates have failed to agree on. Her appeals to religious conservatives and her centrist positions will help her in the Democratic primaries, and, as her strong showing in New Hampshire demonstrates, it already has.
Just as the evangelical Christian vote is essential to President Trump, the Democratic nominee will need to pick up a significant number of religious voters in order to win this fall. Buttigieg’s heavy-handed moralizing clearly isn’t working. Klobuchar’s message of unity, however, will take her far.
