I’m a Mormon and a Republican — a lot of us are. But this may be an odder coupling than we imagine. A Gallop poll in February of 2007 found Republicans were 77% more likely to reject a candidate based on her Mormonism than Democrats (39% of Republicans vs. 23% of Democrats). If this poll is meaningful (and it may not be; a follow-up poll found 18% of each party), then it’s strange that the party wherein most Mormons find their home seems less hospitable to them than the party they oppose. Would this be analogous to a hypothetical situation in which 60% of gays voted Republican?

Jim Geraghty at The National Review writes:

What does it say that after conservative talk show hosts rail against McCain for a week, we do see a bunch of deep red states go for a candidate besides McCain… but it’s not Romney, but Huckabee?

John O’Sullivan, his colleague at The National Review writes:

…I fear that one element in the voting may be a positive rejection of Romney. That seems to be a factor quite as much as an embrace of McCain. Hence the revival of Huckabee in the South. My southern belle wife always warned that many evangelicals would vote for anyone but a Mormon. I was skeptical — and we don’t yet have the exit poll breakdowns on that kind of question — but it looks as if something like that may be at work.

Mark Steyn, also at The National Review writes:

There was an explicit anti-Romney vote in the south. A mere month ago, in the wake of Iowa and New Hampshire, I received a ton of emails from southern readers saying these pansy northern states weren’t the “real” conservative heartland, and things would look different once the contest moved to the south. Well, the heartland spoke last night and about the only message it sent was that, no matter what the talk radio guys say, they’re not voting for a Mormon no way no how. The rationale for Romney continuing his campaign is that he’s the conservative alternative to McCain. The message from Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee is that he will never be accepted as such by the conservatives’ electoral base.

These are smart guys. But I don’t think that they’re right. In my opinion, you have two candidates, Romney and Huckabee, blaming the other for not dropping out of the race sooner. So there’s a standoff, and neither contender is likely to blink, even if they both lose as a result. I have a hard time believing that people are as temperamentally opposed to a Mormon candidate as these writers say they are. Then again, I’m the guy who still thinks Banner of Heaven was a great idea. Maybe I’m wrong.

I’m as Republican as any man living, but I’m a Mormon before I’m a Republican — no contest (it even sounds odd to say it). If these guys are right in identifying the disconnect between the Republican voices and Republican voters, if this is the way that they see my religion (and I still think that’s an awfully big “if”), then perhaps we should consider a boycott. Or maybe we should work to change the party from within.