Conservative Christian voters came out in large numbers to elect Donald Trump the next president of the United States.
A new survey conducted on Election Day by the American Culture & Faith Institute found out which political commentators had the greatest influence on these conservative Christian voters.
Some of the names on the list may surprise you, as they are mostly TV and radio personalities seen and heard on a regular basis throughout the campaign season.
Here are the top ten:
1. Rush Limbaugh (19 percent)
2. Sean Hannity (17 percent)
3. Bill O’Reilly (14 percent)
4. Laura Ingraham (12 percent)
5. Tony Perkins (11 percent)
6. Charles Krauthammer (9 percent)
7. Tim Wildmon (6 percent)
8. Megyn Kelly (5 percent)
9. Pat Robertson (5 percent)
10. Todd Starnes (4 percent)
The survey found that Tim Wildmon, Todd Starnes and Pat Robertson all drew a greater share of their following from conservatives who identify with social matters over fiscal policy.
Very conservative, as opposed to those who identified as moderately conservative, gravitated more toward Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Tony Perkins.
The results also found the more conservative people said they were, the more likely they were to consume more news.
“In the same way that campaigns buy as much media time as they can afford in order to capture public attention and persuade people to think in a particular manner, these political analysts benefit from tremendous daily exposure that no campaign or organization could afford to pay for,” said George Barna, the researcher who directs the efforts of the American Culture & Faith Institute. “The liberal voting community undoubtedly has a similar profile of exposure to the political analysts featured on the more liberal outlets, like CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and NPR. For better or worse, the dozens of national political commentators featured on all of these media had a significant hand in shaping the election.”
The majority came from Fox News Channel or talk radio, some appeared on the campaign trail and others kept their distance from it, but all managed to have a large impact on one of the most important voter blocks in this year’s election: conservative Christian voters.
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