Aug 31, 2012 / 00:54 am
Jim Nicholson, former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, thinks that the Catholic vote remains an important force in modern politics and that more Catholics than in the past will vote for Romney and the Republican Party in the upcoming election.
"The Catholic vote is very relevant," Nicholson told CNA on Aug. 29, "because there is a large number of Catholics" in the United States. The country currently has 55.6 million voting age Catholics and in swing states they make up 19 percent of the electorate, according to Georgetown's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
Nicholson, who has also served as U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Chairman of the Republican National Committee, explained that the U.S. has one of the largest Catholic populations in the world.
But, he qualified, the "Catholic vote is not a monolith." And while "Catholics are traditionally Democrat," Nicholson says that is changing.