Abstract
To increase religious conservative voter enthusiasm in the 2012 election, Mitt Romney had to counteract the stigma and kakoethos, or bad character, associated with his Mormon religion. Romney temporarily dealt with his religion by using what Goffman calls covering (i.e., downplaying) a known stigma. Responding to Romney's rhetoric, Reverend Franklin Graham advocated for the candidate but still marked his religion as stigma. Instead of outright support for Romney, Graham advocated for the Republican nominee by tapping into evangelicals’ concerns about President Obama's religious affiliation and political values. Through an analysis of Romney's 2012 RNC speech and a USA Today editorial by Graham, I argue that instead of breaking religious barriers, Romney and Graham's faith-based rhetoric perpetuated the stigma associated with nontraditional religions in American politics.
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