Well, 44% is quite a lot. How many percent do you think it needs to be to qualify to be 'sentiment of the masses'? At least, then, it channeled the sentiment of the rural protestant masses.

Incidentally, there are many parallels here to Trump's support. He won the presidency through the Electoral College, not majority of the votes. But that was enough. He is in power and still strongly supported by the sentiment of many people who have been left behind by globalization and feel lost in an increasingly complex world.