Pollster says study on Christian voting pattern needed
Prominent pollster Don Anderson has lamented the lack of data indicating the voting trends among churchgoers. This is so, even though close to 70 percent of the population are Christians, based on the latest available census.
Speaking as one of three presenters during a public forum on the Power of the Christian Vote, hosted by the Association of Christian Communicators and Media (ACCM) on July 27, the respected pollster made an urgent call for more research that specifically focuses on the voting patterns of Christians. This, he noted, was already being done in other countries.
“When I look at the United States, for example, you can see, because studies have been done to establish how Christians voted, how they felt about issues. I lament the fact that at the moment, we don’t have that kind of benefit or that kind of hindsight, which is really what it is,” he said.
“If you look at the United States, there’s data which can tell you what percentage of the Christians voted for Trump and what percentage didn’t. And the data is very clear that in the United States, the Christian community played a significant role in the success that Trump achieved in that 2024 election. It’s a factor, and you can see exactly what were the causal factors, what are the sorts of things that the Christian community was interested in, and what, for example, just using, positing Kamala Harris against that, what were the issues that she was focusing on. And when you break it down, the significant factor was that the Christian community voted on certain issues that were in line with their own ideals, and they felt that Trump could, in fact, deliver on those,” Anderson explained.
“We don’t have the benefit of that kind of information in Jamaica, unfortunately. Not yet. But it certainly has given us food for thought that maybe in some exit interviews or some post-election surveys, we should find it out,” he suggested.
The next general election for Jamaica is constitutionally due by December this year. Both the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) are confident of victory and have unofficially launched campaigns that see them going across the island outlining their plans for the nation. There has been no specific pledge to the Christian community.
Anderson, who has been commissioned by several organisations, including political parties, to conduct polls over the years, said the general demographics of age, gender, and socioeconomic background are usually used.