December 3, 2012 12:33PM 

# Suburban GOP Voters Defecting In Droves On Same-Sex Marriage 

By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) 

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Since last month’s election I’ve been analyzing the voter shifts on Nov. 6 that carried gay-marriage advocates to victory in four states, after years of defeats. Yesterday the *Washington Post* “Outlook” section ran a piece in which I documented one of the most noteworthy shifts: Republican voters, especially in suburbs, crossed over in droves to [break with their party’s official position](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-helped-same-sex-marriage-win-at-the-polls/2012/11/30/7db4e37c-3a45-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html). A few highlights:

- Mitt Romney carried 18 counties in Maryland; in two of the three biggest, Anne Arundel and Frederick, the same-sex marriage referendum won outright. In 11 of the 18, Question 6 ran stronger than President Obama, a sign that more GOP voters were crossing over in support of it than Democrats were crossing the other way.
- In greater Minneapolis-St. Paul, 47 towns and cities that voted for Romney also rejected Amendment One, the gay-marriage ban. Many suburban communities where Republicans tend to dominate or run competitively buried Amendment One with 60 percent of their vote.
- In all three states studied — Maine as well as Maryland and Minnesota — the swings were most pronounced in executive/​commuter suburbs with many well-educated and economically successful residents.

The article is [here](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-helped-same-sex-marriage-win-at-the-polls/2012/11/30/7db4e37c-3a45-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html), and includes some thoughts on the debate in progress over how if at all the GOP should recast its approach to be more successful with voters. I also appeared on [this Cato podcast](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/gay-marriage-versus-gop) last week to discuss the findings, and published more detailed breakdowns of the Maryland vote at the *Huffington Post* [here](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/walter-olson/how-republicans-carried-maryland-question-6-to-victory-fresh-evidence_b_2139661.html) and [here](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/walter-olson/maryland-gay-marriage_b_2094675.html).

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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