A poll count of favorite presidential candidates of Protestant pastors has been released by the LifeWay Research, which shows that Ted Cruz is the top favorite among the Republican-leaning pastors, while Hillary Clinton leads the list among the Democrat-leaning pastors. A very low rating was recorded for Donald Trump.
A telephone interview of 1,000 Protestant pastors was conducted by LifeWay Research, which found that as many as 48 percent of the pastors were clueless about whom to vote for if the nation were to vote today. Among the Republican pastors, "Undecided" was the highest choice (39%), followed by Ted Cruz at 29 percent.
The survey found that Democrat-leaning pastors had a comparatively high preference for Hillary Clinton (38%), and 31 percent were "Undecided." Bernie Sanders was third on the list with 23% votes, and others (multiple candidates put together) trailed behind at 8 percent.
Among the Republican supporters, 10 percent chose Ben Carson, and another 8 percent voted for Marco Rubio. Only five percent said they wanted Donald Trump for the next president.
"One of the most surprising findings of our survey was the poor showing of Donald Trump. When it comes to Mr. Trump, there seems to be a huge gap between the pulpit and the pew," said Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research.
Of all the pastors surveyed, 54 percent were Republicans, 14 percent Democrats and another 23 percent Independents.
According to the poll, Cruz has a higher support among the white pastors (19%), as compared to in other ethnicities (5%). These results contrasted the trend of favorite candidate on the Democratic side. Only 5 percent of white pastors favor Clinton, but 18 percent from other ethnic groups favored her.
Furthermore, the research found that Pentecostal (61%) and Lutheran (60%) pastors were more likely to be in the "Undecided" category than Baptist pastors (43%).
This poll shows different results from the earlier surveys done on Christians in general, where Donald Trump maintained a lead. Trump got the highest support from evangelicals (42%), and Ted Cruz trailed with 25 percent votes, according to a New York Times poll.
"One of the few religious groups that national polls track are evangelical Christians, and it is hard not to notice a surprising gap between them and their pastors," noted Stetzer.
