“…And, while he did not win the presidency, his loss did not seem to be a result of his religious belief” (98). George Hawley agrees that Romney's loss to Obama during the federal election was not primarily due to his Mormonism, although he acknowledges that his faith did play some role. Many others describe Romney's Mormonism as a “nonissue” in 2012 (Guth; Powell; Powell and Hickson; Smietana; Turner) because of his reluctance to openly discuss it and the relative absence of religious debate during the election cycle (Guth and Bradberry).…”