Exit polls from Tuesday's midterm
elections show a dramatic increase in support for marriage equality
among younger voters and more gays voting Republican.
According to a CNN poll,
self-identified gay men, lesbians and bisexuals made up 3% of those
casting votes in House races. Among that group, 31% said that they
voted for a Republican candidate, a
4% increase from 2008.
Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of
gay GOP group GOProud, applauded the turnout.
“The gay left would have you believe
that gay conservatives don't exist,” LaSalvia wrote in a blog post.
“Now we see that almost a third of self-identified gay voters cast
ballots for Republican candidates for Congress in this year's
midterm.”
“This should be a wake-up call for
the out-of-touch so-called leadership of Gay, Inc. in Washington,
D.C., which has become little more than a subsidiary of the Democrat
Party,” he added.
An NBC
News national exit poll found midterm voters evenly divided at
48% on the issue of marriage equality. Two years ago, 49% said that
they support such unions.
However, support among voters under the
age of 30 has increased from a bare majority (52%) in 2010 to a large
majority (64%) in 2014. Respondents were asked whether gay couples
should be allowed to marry in their state.
A 9% increase in support was also seen
in voters age 65 and over, from 29% in 2010 to 38% today.