Voter Demographics

In remarks at a dinner at the Newseum hosted by the Roper Center, Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut analyzed the voter preferences revealed in exit and post-election polls and their implications for the incoming administration.

Hispanics voted for Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden over Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin by a margin of more than two-to-one in the 2008 presidential election, 67% versus 31%.

The Hispanic vote in Florida has long been an anomaly. It has tended to be heavily Republican, while the Latino vote in the rest of the country has tended to be heavily Democratic.

As in two preceding tests, a new survey shows that including cell phone interviews results in slightly more support for Obama and slightly less for McCain.

Half (50%) of all Latinos say that the situation of Latinos in this country is worse now than it was a year ago.

Hispanic registered voters support Democrat Barack Obama for president over Republican John McCain by 66% to 23%, according to a nationwide survey of 2,015 Latinos.

Many white evangelicals remain undecided and Obama has made few inroads into this key constituency. But the Democratic candidate enjoys strong support among the religiously unaffiliated.

More than 3.9 million people reside in Puerto Rico and 2.8 million of them are eligible to vote.

Trends in the opinions of America's youngest voters are often a barometer of shifting political winds. And that appears to be the case in 2008. Use the interactive tool to track generational differences in party affiliation over time.

Sen. Hillary Clinton would not have won primaries in the nation's two largest states--California and Texas--if Latinos had not turned out in such large numbers and if they had not voted so heavily in her favor, according to an analysis of exit polling data.