Poll: More than half of Americans would support "non-traditional" candidates for president

United States presidents largely have been white male Protestants, with almost half affiliated with the Episcopal or Presbyterian churches. A new Gallop Poll, though, reveals more than 50 percent of American voters would be willing to support a Jew, Muslim, woman, gay, lesbian or atheist for the nation's top executive office.

The random survey of 1,527 voting-age adults reflects a dramatic growth in tolerance from the earlier polls of the 20th century.

Gallop pollsters found 93 percent of respondents open to supporting a Catholic presidential candidate, up more than 30 percentage points from a 1960 poll. Only one of the nation's 44 chief executives, John F. Kennedy, was a member of that faith. More than 90 percent would support a woman, Jew, Hispanic or African American; almost three-fourths would support a gay, lesbian or evangelical Christian.

Sixty percent would consider voting for a Muslim; 58 percent, an atheist.

The poll found views toward "non-traditional" candidates varied by voters' religious affiliation.

"Protestants' views about the candidate types tend to be similar to political conservatives'," pollsters said in an analysis. "Catholics look most similar to moderates and the non-religious are more in line with liberals."

Non-religious voters were the strongest supporters of potential female, African-American, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim, gay, lesbian or atheist contenders. Non-religious support for a Muslim candidate exceeded that of the second-highest supporter group ‑ Catholics ‑ by 13 percentage points.

Another poll found that the youngest voters, aged 18-29, were more likely to support Hispanic, gay, lesbian, Muslim and atheist candidates than other age groups. Almost three-fourths of the youngest voters said they could support a Muslim candidate.

The new poll revealed stark differences from earlier surveys.

Overall, 91 percent of poll participants said they would support a Jewish presidential candidate ‑ up 45 percentage points from the first poll in 1937. Support for a female candidate jumped 59 percentage points from the 1937 poll; for a gay or lesbian, 48 percentage points since 1978.