2/3 of Florida voters say religion matters in presidential race

Many Florida voters are considering the divine before they enter the ballot box.

That’s one takeaway from a fresh survey released by Religion News Service.

A total of 67% of Sunshine State voters say religion will play a role in determining who they support in November’s presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

For perspective, that percentage is greater than in the five other states that got breakouts in the poll: California, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

A full 21% say the religious question is “essential” to their choice. Another 28% deem it “significant,” while an additional 18% say it’s “important.”

Neither Trump nor Harris play up faith in the manner of President Joe Biden, a devout mass-attending Catholic.

In other findings in the poll, 72% of Floridians say it’s “extremely” or “very important” to understand different religions, more than the other five states with breakouts, and 14 points above the national average for that question.

Floridians are also most likely to say religion plays a positive role in regard to political matters, including global issues and “arts and entertainment.”

Sunshine State residents are only two points behind Pennsylvanians (74% to 72%) in affirming the “positive” role of religion in education, leading all other major states that got breakouts in the survey.

That said, it’s not all hosannas. Only 47% of Florida respondents say religion plays a positive role in politics, four points less than the national average.

Floridians are also most likely to say they have witnessed religious discrimination in the last year, with 39% of them making that claim. That’s more than any other state broken out in the survey.

The poll also reviewed regional variations, including the likelihood of praying before voting. There, 62% of people in the South, which geographically includes Florida, say they pray before hitting the ballot box. Single state data was not provided for that inquiry.

Researchscape International conducted the online poll of 1,087 U.S. adults Aug. 16-19. The margin of error is ±4%.