American Jews overwhelmingly prefer the Democratic Party to the Republicans and overwhelmingly support Sen. Henry M. Jackson of Washington over President Ford or Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama in the 1976 Presidential race, according to a recently, published study by the Institute of Politics of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
The study. “Voters, Primaries and Parties,” tabulated voter preferences according to religious affiliation in only two areas– “voting behavior” and choice of candidate. In the first category, only three percent of Jewish voters favored the Republican Party against nine percent of Roman Catholic voters and 17 percent of Protestants.
Among Jews, 56 percent indicated they would vote Democratic compared to 43 percent of Catholics and 38 percent of Protestants. Thirty percent of the Jewish voters were “ticket splitters” compared to 36 percent of Catholics and 34 percent of Protestants. Among Jews and Protestants, II percent were undecided. Twelve percent of the Catholic voters were in the undecided column.
Ford, Jackson and Wallace, the latter designated as an “independent” were pitted against each other in the hypothetical question, if the elections were held today, who would you vote for? Jews picked Jackson by 64 percent; 17 percent were for Ford and three percent for Wallace. Ford was favored, however, by the largest number of Catholics (33%) and Protestants (30%). Twenty-six percent of Catholics preferred Jackson and 21 percent Wallace. Jackson and Wallace were tied among Protestants, each favored by 24 percent of the voters.
The study was made before the 1976 Presidential primaries began and was just released. It did not contain any indication of voter attitudes toward Jimmy Carter, Morris Udall and others seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination or Sen. Hubert H. Hamphrey, who is not a declared candidate but is regarded by many as a strong contender. Ronald Reagan was not included as a possible Republican choice.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
