{"id":3115,"date":"2015-10-14T20:06:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T20:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/peculiarpeople\/?p=3115"},"modified":"2015-10-14T20:06:57","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T20:06:57","slug":"this-is-why-the-mormon-vote-matters-to-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/peculiarpeople\/2015\/10\/this-is-why-the-mormon-vote-matters-to-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"This is Why the Mormon Vote Matters to Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Gage<\/a>
Gage Skidmore\/Wikimedia Commons\/ Alterations by JJ Feinauer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mormon reporter-in-chief McKay Coppins has a new piece up at Buzzfeed<\/a> (it\u2019s actually a two days old now) about why the \u201cMormon vote\u201d in Nevada has become so important to Republicans.<\/p>\n

According to Coppins, Mormons<\/a> haven\u2019t typically been seen by candidates as an important demographic in the primaries. They vote reliably Republican, but beyond\u00a0that Mormons haven\u2019t typically played a major role in the primary horse race. But Coppins details how the\u00a0Romney campaign proved that Mormons can be a useful force, especially in\u00a0Nevada:<\/p>\n

GOP strategists attribute this change to the Romney campaign\u2019s unprecedented success in organizing and energizing the state\u2019s LDS voters. While Nevada is only about 5% Mormon, members of the church made up a whopping 25% of the Republican caucuses in both 2008 and 2012.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what is that special sauce? What is it that Mormons have that staffers and strategists yearn for? According to Coppins, it\u2019s all about organization:<\/p>\n

Unlike most religious sects, the church is structured like a top-down corporation, and every congregation in the world reports back to headquarters in Salt Lake City. Mormons are each assigned to a geographically determined \u201cward\u201d of about 200\u2013300 people, and each congregation distributes a directory of its members\u2019 addresses and contact information, to be used for coordinating visits to needy families, or organizing church picnics. Members are expressly prohibited from using the lists for political or business purposes, and while there were isolated rumors of abuse in 2012 by overzealous partisans, Romney himself was adamant that his team not violate the church\u2019s rule.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This organizational structure, according to Coppins, makes it easier for political operatives to establish a pipeline of potential supporters. As Coppins pointed out in the above passage, politicians are not to use ward and stake lists for their own ends, but the fact that Mormons are so connected makes getting referrals a heck of a lot easier.<\/p>\n

So the big question is, who\u2019s gonna get the Mormons on their side<\/a><\/strong>? Will it be Ben? Donald? HILLARY?!?!?!? Stay tuned to find out the answer, which will likely be just as absurd as the question.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mormon reporter-in-chief McKay Coppins has a new piece up at Buzzfeed (it\u2019s actually a two days old now) about why the \u201cMormon vote\u201d in Nevada has become so important to Republicans. According to Coppins, Mormons haven\u2019t typically been seen by candidates as an important demographic in the primaries. They vote reliably Republican, but beyond\u00a0that Mormons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2063,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[190,148,193,194,260,259,211,1379,245,153],"class_list":["post-3115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-society","tag-190","tag-gop","tag-marco-rubio","tag-mitt-romney","tag-mormon-republicans","tag-mormon-vote","tag-nevada","tag-politics","tag-republicans","tag-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints"],"yoast_head":"\nThis is Why the Mormon Vote Matters to Republicans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mormon reporter-in-chief McKay Coppins has a new piece up at Buzzfeed (it's actually a two days old now) about why the "Mormon vote" in Nevada has become\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/peculiarpeople\/2015\/10\/this-is-why-the-mormon-vote-matters-to-republicans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This is Why the Mormon Vote Matters to Republicans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mormon reporter-in-chief McKay Coppins has a new piece up at Buzzfeed (it's actually a two days old now) about why the "Mormon vote" in Nevada has become\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/peculiarpeople\/2015\/10\/this-is-why-the-mormon-vote-matters-to-republicans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Peculiar People\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-14T20:06:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/peculiarpeople\/files\/2015\/10\/Mitt_Romney_laughing_at_rally-copy-1024x682.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"J. 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