Obama Wins Young Evangelical Voters in Battleground-State Push

Miller, 23, calls recruiting political converts there ``an uphill battle.'' Still, the group's existence signals an opening for Barack Obama among conservative evangelicals -- especially younger ones -- that may help sway the outcome of the presidential vote in states like Virginia and Florida. Evangelicals, who make up more than one-quarter of the U.S. population and consist of predominantly white Protestants outside ``mainline'' denominations, have for decades overwhelmingly backed Republicans. Seventy-eight percent voted for President George W. Bush in 2004, exit polls showed.Now, Obama is courting them, and there are indications he's getting through to some. Republican John McCain, who is private about his faith and alienated evangelicals by denouncing Falwell and other right- wing preachers in 2000 as ``agents of intolerance,'' hasn't stirred enthusiasm among the faithful.