Key findings from an exit poll of Kansas voters in Tuesday's presidential and U.S. Senate elections:
HAIL TO THE CHIEF: About three in five Kansas voters approve of both the way President Bush is handling his job and the decision to go to war with Iraq -- and the president received virtually all of their votes.
FOR KERRY, SORT OF: More than half of those who went for Democrat John Kerry said they voted mainly against the president rather than for the Massachusetts senator. Bush's backers were far more enthusiastic: about three-fourths voted for the president rather than against Kerry.
PARTY LOYALTY: Bush had near-unanimous support from the roughly one-half of voters who think of themselves as Republicans. Democrats, who accounted for about one-fourth of voters, were more likely to cross party lines, with one in six voting for Bush. The president edged Kerry among independents and members of third parties.
MODERATE MAJORITY: Labels aside, political moderates accounted for nearly half of Kansas' voters. Bush won a majority with that group and with the roughly four in 10 who consider themselves conservative. Slightly more than one-tenth consider themselves liberal, and they went for Kerry.
FAMILY INCOME: Kerry prevailed decisively only with one economic group -- the roughly one in three who rated their families' financial situations worse today than four years ago. He and Bush ran even among voters with household incomes between $15,000 and $30,000 last year.
AGE: Bush was favored in every age group, but Kerry ran closest to the president among voters 65 and older.
RELIGION: Protestants far outnumbered adherents of any other religion and went heavily for Bush. He also won decisively with Catholics, the next-largest group.
BORN-AGAIN KANSANS: White Protestant conservatives as well as white evangelical/born-again Protestants were solidly in the Bush column.
DECISIVE: Most Kansans made their final decision in the presidential race at least one month ago.
SENATE RACE: Republican Sen. Sam Brownback garnered large majorities from every category of age and income. He even drew more than one-fourth of votes cast by Democrats, the rest of which went for challenger Lee Jones.
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Exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International among 654 voters as they left 15 randomly selected precincts around Kansas on Tuesday. Margin of sampling error plus or minus 6 percentage points for the overall sample, larger for subgroups.
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