ABSTRACT
Religion has always played a vital role in American politics. Although electoral tides often rise or fall on economic events, foreign policy crises, or other “secular” concerns, contemporary partisan coalitions are characterized by remarkably stable religious alliances that shift only marginally from election to election. Those shifts do sometimes produce dramatically varied outcomes, with Republican victories in 2004 and 2010 and Democratic triumphs in 2006 and 2008. Although one journalist proclaimed that “God was remarkably absent” from the 2012 election, religion did in fact play a significant role in that contest.
