A new poll released Tuesday suggests that Republican voters continue to believe President Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim, and that he was born outside the United States. In fact, Republicans are more likely to think Ted Cruz was born in the U.S. than Obama, even though Ted Cruz actually was born abroad.
According to the poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP), only 29 percent of likely Republican primary voters believe Obama was born in the U.S., well below the 40 percent who believe that Cruz was born here. Fifty-four percent of Republicans said they thought Obama was a Muslim, while 14 percent said he was a Christian and 32 percent were unsure.
Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada, to an American mother and Cuban father. Some believe Cruz’s birth outside the U.S. makes him ineligible for the presidency due to the Constitution limiting the presidency to a “natural-born citizen,” though most legal scholars believe Cruz is a natural-born citizen because he is the son of a U.S. citizen. Cruz only renounced his Canadian citizenship after being elected to the Senate.
Despite long-running conspiracy theories to the contrary, all evidence indicates that Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii rather than in Kenya. While Obama was raised by non-religious parents, he converted to Christianity as an adult and has long identified himself as a Christian.
PPP is a Democratic-leaning firm, but its polling is generally regarded as reliable.
The poll also asked voters about who they were backing for the Republican nomination for president. Donald Trump was in first place with 29 percent, followed by Ben Carson at 15 percent, with no other candidate attracting double-digit support. Notably, Trump and Carson supporters were also more likely to believe that Obama is a Muslim and that he was born abroad. Also, a whopping 62 percent of Ted Cruz supporters incorrectly believe he was born in the U.S.
The poll was conducted Aug. 28-30 with a sample of 541 likely Republican primary voters, and it had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
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