Pew Reports: The Tea Party, Religion and Social Issues

Strong Support from Evangelicals

Support for the Tea Party varies dramatically across religious groups. Surveys from November 2010 through February 2011 show that white evangelical Protestants are roughly five times as likely to agree with the movement as to disagree with it (44% vs. 8%), though substantial numbers of white evangelicals either have no opinion or have not heard of the movement (48%). Three-in-ten or more of white Catholics (33%) and white mainline Protestants (30%) also agree with the Tea Party, but among these two groups at least one-in-five people disagrees with the movement.

Among Jews, the religiously unaffiliated and black Protestants, however, there is more opposition than support for the Tea Party. Nearly half of Jews (49%) say they disagree with the Tea Party movement, compared with 15% who agree with it. Among the unaffiliated, more than four-in-ten (42%) disagree with the movement while 15% agree with it. About two-thirds of atheists and agnostics (67%) disagree with the movement. Most black Protestants polled (56%) say they have not heard of the Tea Party or have no opinion about it. But among black Protestants who offer an opinion, those who disagree with the movement outnumber those who agree with it by more than five-to-one (37% disagree vs. 7% agree).

The Tea Party and the Conservative Christian Movement

Americans who support the conservative Christian movement, sometimes known as the religious right, also overwhelmingly support the Tea Party. In the Pew Research Center's August 2010 poll, 69% of registered voters who agreed with the religious right also said they agreed with the Tea Party. Moreover, both the religious right and the Tea Party count a higher percentage of white evangelical Protestants in their ranks (45% among the religious right, 34% among the Tea Party and 22% among all registered voters in the August 2010 survey). Religiously unaffiliated people are less common among Tea Party or religious right supporters than among the public at-large (3% among the religious right, 10% among the Tea Party and 15% among all registered voters in the August poll).

While most people who agree with the conservative Christian movement support the Tea Party, many people who support the Tea Party are unfamiliar with or uncertain about the religious right. In the August poll, almost half of Tea Party supporters said they had not heard of or did not have an opinion on the conservative Christian movement (46%). Among those who did offer an opinion, however, Tea Party supporters agreed with the religious right by a roughly four-to-one margin (42% agreed with the religious right, 11% disagreed).

Overall, the Tea Party appears to be more widely known and to garner broader support than the religious right. The August survey found that 86% of registered voters had heard of the Tea Party, compared with 64% who had heard of the conservative Christian movement; among Republican and Republican-leaning voters, 91% had heard of the Tea Party compared with 68% who were familiar with the conservative Christian movement. About half of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters (51%) agreed with the Tea Party in the August poll, as did more than a quarter (27%) of all registered voters. By contrast, about three-in-ten Republican and Republican-leaning voters (31%) said they agreed with the conservative Christian movement, as did one-in-six registered voters overall (16%).

For more on the role of religion in politics, social issues, candidates and political parties, see the "Religion & Politics 2012" page at pewforum.org.

_{1. See, for example, "Is the Religious Right Taking Over the Tea Party?"; Huffington Post, Oct. 27, 2010. Also, "Tea Party Closely Linked to Religious Right, Poll Finds,"; ABC News, Oct. 5, 2010.
2. All analyses in this report are based on registered voters.
3 Respondents were asked "How much, if anything, have you heard about the conservative Christian movement sometimes known as the religious right? Have you heard a lot, a little, or nothing at all?" Those who said they had heard at least a little were then asked "In general, do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the conservative Christian movement, or don't you have an opinion either way?"
4 Throughout this analysis, Tea Party supporters are defined as those who say they “strongly agree” or “agree” with the Tea Party movement. Most, but not all, Tea Party supporters identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. In aFebruary 2011 Pew Research Center poll, for example, 82% of registered voters who agree with the Tea Party say they identify with or lean toward the Republican Party.}

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