A Majority of Young Republicans Support Gay Marriage

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Supporters of gay marriage may not be welcome at CPAC, but they’re making huge strides everywhere else. On Thursday, Jan van Lohuizen and Joel Benenson, top campaign pollsters respectively for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, released a new study on attitudes toward marriage equality, based on 2012 exit poll data. The short of it: Even young Republicans think conservatives are fighting a losing battle.

While 53 percent of eligible voters support marriage equality, 83 percent believe same-sex marriage will be legal nationwide within five to 10 years. And for the first time, a majority of Republicans under the age of 30 support marriage equality at the state level. (Fifty-one percent do.) According to Benenson and Lohuizen, the only major demographic that still opposes same-sex marriage is white, evangelical Christians.

The study, commissioned by the pro-marriage equality group Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry, didn’t get around to asking eligible voters about their attitudes toward sushi, but we think we have a pretty good idea where they fall: