A straw poll conducted last month among evangelical leaders at the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) convention indicated a substantial increase in support for U.S. Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) to receive the 1988 Republican nomination for president. Previous samplings among conservative Christians have revealed stronger support for the other leading Republican contenders. On the Democratic side, the straw poll indicated that preference for a candidate is more evenly divided among several hopefuls.
The poll asked 177 NAE board members and other leaders to indicate “your preference for the Democratic and Republican presidential nomination in 1988” from lists of 11 names from each party. NAE spokesmen explained that the polling was done among NAE leadership rather than conventioneers at large because of concern that local attendance at the Buffalo, New York, convention might skew the results in favor of New York Congressman Jack Kemp, a Republican presidential hopeful.
The straw poll ranked Republican contenders as follows: Dole, 34 percent; Kemp, 23 percent; Vice President George Bush, 21 percent; and Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, 13 percent. Other possible Republican nominees received fewer than four votes each, including former Delaware Governor Pierre DuPont, former U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, former Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, and Illinois Governor James Thompson.
Among Democratic hopefuls, former Colorado Senator Gary Hart received 25 percent of the votes, followed by Georgia Senator Sam Nunn with 20 percent; Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt, 17 percent; New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, 15 percent; and former Virginia Governor Charles Robb, 10 percent. Five or fewer votes went to other Democratic hopefuls, including former Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, Arkansas Senator Dale Bumpers, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
NAE spokesmen say the straw poll results “may indicate that evangelicals are looking for a conservative Democratic alternative to front-running Hart, with the combined support of Nunn, Gephardt, and Robb totaling 47 percent.” On the Republican side, NAE notes, “Robertson’s fourth-place showing reveals that an evangelical voting bloc behind his candidacy has yet to develop.”
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