American Family Association


PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Deborah Hamilton, Hamilton Strategies

Monday, November 10, 2014

American Family Association: Evangelicals and Social Conservatives Made Major Election Impact

TUPELO, Miss.—Evangelicals and social conservatives played a major role in the shift in the balance of power on Election Day, and American Family Association (AFA, www.afa.net) says the trend proves Americans want to see their values reflected in Washington, D.C.

“What we saw on Tuesday shows us what can happen when values voters are informed and mobilized to go to the polls,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon. “We can change the political landscape of America, and now we have even more evidence that values voters do matter.”

Through the following vehicles, AFA offered voters extensive information so they could make wise decisions at the ballot box:

• Distributed 10,000,000 emails about the AFA Action Voter Guide.
• Produced the documentary, “A Time to Speak,” watched by tens of thousands of voters, and mailed DVDs of the film to 160,000 voters in critical swing states, urging them to pray and vote in the midterm election.
• Recruited hundreds of citizen-panelists to evaluate candidates through AFA Action.
• Promoted the most focused “Get Out the Vote” campaign in AFA history.
• Provided extensive, continuous coverage of campaigns and election results on the American Family Radio network of 200 stations.

“Now as the election dust settles, it would not be wise for party leadership to kick social conservatives to the curb,” Wildmon said. “Republicans cannot win without the support of evangelicals and social conservatives. AFA has pledged to continue to support those political leaders who will promote and defend our values, and we are determined to expose the political leaders who will not. Furthermore, we will continue to focus on whether these newly elected officials will defend religious liberty, the sanctity of life and the protection of marriage when these important issues come before Congress. We expect that these issues, especially natural marriage and the sanctity of life, will be crucial in 2016, and we remind GOP leadership that these issues must continue to be supported by the GOP platform.”

Numerous exit polls tracked voters’ party affiliation by faith. For example, Christian voters across the county largely supported Republican candidates, according to data from a Public Opinion Strategies exit poll. Sixty percent of Protestants voted for Republican Senate candidates, while 56 percent of Catholics voted for Republicans. Among weekly churchgoers, 82 percent voted Republican, while 70 percent of the weekly Catholic churchgoers also voted for GOP candidates.

And the Republicans who won were not simply moderate Republicans. Many of them are staunch supporters of life and natural marriage, demonstrating that Americans are deeply concerned about these critical issues and want candidates who will stand for life and marriage.

In a post-election Action Alert to its one million-plus friends and supporters, AFA thanked Americans for voting.

“The election results from across the country were very encouraging!” the email alert read. “There were many Christians elected to office who believe in constitutional conservatism and, hopefully, will be people of character. This was also a repudiation by the American people of the many, many terrible decisions that have been made by President Obama and the current leadership in Congress. In these dangerous times, America needs a strong Congress and a decisive Commander-in-Chief. We urge you to pray specifically for Mr. Obama, and for those who are now preparing to lead our nation in a new direction.”

AFA offers its friends and supporters several mobile apps through http://www.afa.net/resources/mobile-apps/. The AFA Action Alerts app, with breaking news and action alerts, is available for the iPhone and iPad on the Apple App Store, on Google Play and on the Amazon Appstore for Android. The AFR (American Family Radio) app is available for Apple and Android products, and the AFA Action app with, for example, voter information at election time, is available on Apple and Android platforms.

For more information on American Family Association, visit www.afa.net.