Working-Class White Voter Study: PRRI’s Robert Jones Extended Interview Video and Trascript

This week, comments made by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at a fundraiser have received lots of attention. Some commentators pounced, accusing Romney of dismissing nearly half the country as dependent on government and therefore, implicitly, unshakable Obama supporters. Others insisted Romney merely articulated a sad truth and that then-candidate Obama’s controversial 2008 comments describing some voters as “clinging to guns and religion” were equally damning. But a survey from Public Religion Research Institute released this week offers new insights into a frequently-stereotyped population, white working-class America (making up about 36% of us), finding some things that just might surprise you. Dr. Robert P. Jones, founding CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, joins Welton to share the highlights of the new report: “Beyond Guns and God: Understanding the Complexities of the White Working Class in America.”