Overview For the third national election in a row, independent voters may be poised to vote out the party in power. The Republican Party holds a significant edge in preferences for the upcoming congressional election among likely voters, in large part because political independents now favor Republican candidates by about as large a margin as […]
Partisan affiliation has shifted in small but important ways several times over the past two decades, with several politically consequential changes occurring the in past few years. After holding a 10-percentage point advantage in party identification among registered voters in 2008 and 2009, the Democratic Party now has only a five-point lead in 2010. Fewer […]
Summary of Findings While the media provided heavy coverage of the congressional elections last week, the public continued to track news about the nation’s struggling economy more closely than news about the midterm vote. About four-in-ten (41%) say they followed news about the economy very closely last week, while 30% say they followed news about […]
An overwhelming majority of voters (88%) report having seen or heard commercials for candidates running for office so far this year. This is comparable to the 89% of voters who said they had seen or heard campaign commercials at roughly the same point in the 2006 midterm cycle. Today, more than half of voters (56%) […]
Independents are often described as a cohesive bloc of voters, whose views consistently fall midway between those of Republicans and Democrats. Yet a closer look at independents finds a substantial degree of diversity among these voters – demographic, ideological and in their attitudes and opinions. In this survey, we identify four main groups of independent […]
Among registered voters, 34% call themselves Democrats, and 28% Republicans. With virtually all partisans voting for their party’s candidates, and independent registered voters divided, the overall race is about even (47% of registered voters favor Democrats, while 44% favor Republicans). But when the sample is narrowed to likely voters, two things happen. First, high engagement […]
Overview Many Americans say they will look less favorably this fall at congressional candidates who supported the federal bailout of major banks and financial institutions in response to the 2008 financial crisis. About half (49%) say they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supported the major government loans to banks; 14% say […]