US Elections: How Mormon Mitt Romney overcame the curse of magic underpants On the face of it, these would seem major obstacles for a candidate seeking the most powerful elected office in the world. Especially in a country like America, where religion and politics are closely entwined. But Mr Romney is neck and neck with Barack Obama in the national opinion polls. And if he does snatch victory on Tuesday, a key part of his support will come from a bloc that has been most contemptuous of his faith - white evangelical Christians. So how has he done it? The answer is partly by underplaying his faith as much as possible. Although his long record of church service and charitable work would normally be considered a vote-getter in the US, he decided that there were too many possible downsides to going into specifics about his religion. But the Romney camp has at the same time mounted a major campaign, primarily behind the scenes, to woo evangelical leaders. The message has been that on the social issues that matter to the religious Right - most notably abortion and homosexual rights - it is Mr Romney rather than Mr Obama who shares their views. Perhaps the clearest public evidence was Mr Romney's recent visit to the North Carolina home of Billy Graham, after which the 94-year-old evangelist pledged his support. Mr Graham's son and heir apparent, Franklin, also made public that he marked his ballot for Mr Romney in early voting. The younger Mr Graham caused controversy earlier this year by saying that he did not know whether Mr Obama was a Christian or a Muslim. Although he later apologised, his words captured the view of some conservatives that the president is really a Muslim - as well as a dangerous liberal of a socialist, or even a Marxist, bent. In a poll this summer by the Pew Forum on Religion, some 30 per cent of likely Republican voters said they believed Mr Obama was a Muslim, while among a non-partisan audience the figure was 17 per cent. Mr Obama's father, who left the family when his son was two, was indeed a Muslim from Kenya and the president was largely brought up by his mother, an atheist from Kansas. But Mr Obama started to go to church as a student and has long professed his Christianity. The Romney campaign is making no such claims about Mr Obama's religion itself. But in today's highly polarised and febrile political climate, lobbying for support among evangelical leaders is always worthwhile. Ralph Reed, who made the Christian Coalition such a powerful force in US politics that he was known as "God's right-hand man," has played a key role for Team Romney. Mr Reed is coordinating efforts to reach evangelical voters who could be decisive in close-run states such as Iowa, Colorado and the ultimate battleground of Ohio. Mr Romney's wholesome family background - he has five sons with his childhood sweetheart, Ann - and his clean-living Mormon lifestyle, disavowing alcohol or tobacco, make that an easier political sell for Mr Reed. Indeed, the Republican candidate is on course to win as much support from evangelical voters as his party's last president, George W Bush. Should Mr Romney become the first Mormon to win the White House, that has also raised questions about how his religion will influence his presidency. Some commentators have wondered how Latter-day Saints (LDS) teachings would influence the first Mormon president. Would he enlist a "Mormon mafia" in his administration? And here the answer is probably only as much as any other devout believer. He would almost certainly appoint some fellow Mormons to key positions - indeed, the head of his transition-in-waiting team is Mike Leavitt, a former Utah governor and fellow LDS member. But despite earlier flip-flopping in his career, the social positions to which he currently adheres do not differ significantly from those of evangelical Christians. And in one crucial area - foreign policy and national security - his Mormon beliefs clearly converge with his campaign stance. For Mr Romney's commitment to American "exceptionalism" and the need to show leadership on the world stage marries with the Mormon belief that the US Constitution was inspired by God. Yet if Mr Romney wins the White House but the Senate remains under Democrat control, his most implacable foe may actually be another Mormon - Harry Reid, the Nevada politician who leads the Senate Democrats. The scope for Mr Romney's key strategists to play down the candidate's faith as a factor in the race has also been aided by the unwillingness of the Obama camp to delve into religion, largely because of sensitivities about the president's former affiliations with the Rev Jeremiah Wright, his old Chicago pastor and an outspoken black liberation theologist. None the less, according to the polls, there are more liberals than evangelicals who will not vote for Mr Romney because of his religious beliefs. There could not be a clearer demonstration of the willingness of some conservative Christian pastors to cut an electoral deal with Mr Romney than the recent comments by Robert Jeffress, who heads the 10,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas. He denounced the Mormon religion during the Republican primary campaign, when evangelical voters overwhelmingly backed Mr Romney's rivals. But he recently said fellow pastors should stress the importance of voting for the candidate who supports the "biblical values" of the sanctity of marriage, sanctity of life and religious freedom. To stay silent, he said, would put the pastors in the same position as German colleagues who failed to speak out against Hitler in the late 1930s. His views on the dogma of Mr Romney's faith had not altered, he insisted later. "It's absolutely a cult," he said. We clearly differ on theology, but we embrace the same values. Or, as an evangelical voter told The Sunday Telegraph during the South Carolina Republican primary: "I'd rather vote for a Mormon than a Marxist."