The breakdown offers Democrats encouragement that they can make lasting gains among a voting bloc that has been largely off-limits for decades.He doubled the proportion of 18 to 29-year-olds and 30 to 44 year-olds who voted for John Kerry in 2004, and received an extra five per cent across the whole born-again Christian population, which is described as quarter of the electorate.
In doing so he overcame opposition to his support for abortion and gay civil unions, understanding that for more moderate and younger evangelicals they were no longer issues that swamped all others.
Moderate evangelical leaders such as Rick Warren, whose church Mr Obama visited twice during the campaign, have said that Christians need to look at "whole of life" issues rather than just the pro-life crusade.
To his followers, concerns like climate change, genocide in Darfur and torture have risen up the agenda.
"For 30 years abortion and homosexuality have been the mega-issues, but if you shrink the significance of those to be more or less equal with others then that will contribute to a shift in the vote," said David Gushee, professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University in Georgia.
He said Mr Obama broadened his appeal by talking seriously about reducing abortion through better welfare, sex education, birth control and health care. The campaign also contacted ministers, sent them copy of Mr Obama's speeches on faith and arranged meetings with the candidate. It visited a dozen Christian colleges, often holding meeting with Donald Miller, a popular evangelical author.
Prof Gushee added that "young evangelicals were seeking different policies and rejecting George Bush," for sanctioning torture by the US, for playing down global warming and starting a pre-emptive war.
If Mr Obama manages to reduce abortions, he would probably expand his evangelical support and hold on to young voters gained this time.
Mr Obama also exceeded the Democrats' 2004 votes among Jews, Catholics and mainstream Protestants by margins of four to seven per cent.
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(Source: TTU)