Partisanship & Issues

Survey Report For the first time since Barack Obama took office in 2009, deficit reduction has slipped as a policy priority among the public. Overall, 63% say reducing the budget deficit should be a top priority for Congress and the president this year, down from 72% a year ago. Most of the decline has come […]

Significantly fewer Republicans believe in evolution than did so four years ago, setting them apart from Democrats and independents. But behind this finding is a puzzle: If the views of the overall public have remained steady, and there has been little change among people of other political affiliations, how do you account for the Republican numbers? An explainer.

The point increase in unfavorable opinions of Rep. John Boehner since he became House Speaker.

Less than a year out from the 2014 midterm elections, Republicans are more optimistic than Democrats about their party’s electoral prospects. But the “expectations gap” is far more modest now than it was prior to the 2010 election, when Republicans were brimming with confidence, or 2006, when most Democrats anticipated a midterm victory.

Two sociologists have found that parents who have daughters are more inclined to support the GOP and turn a cold shoulder to Democrats.

Pew Research has tracked vote preference among different age cohorts in the past several presidential and midterm elections and looked at who was president when each cohort turned 18. By looking at likely voters from our pre-election surveys, we can see how each age cohort voted relative to the national average.

By Andrew Kohut Tucked away in recent polls—which have documented the extraordinary anger directed at the Republican Party during the shutdown crisis—are measures of clear disappointment with the Democratic Party. The disappointment is substantial, and it raises big questions about the 2014 midterms. The Republican Party’s favorable ratings fell substantially in most every national survey […]

As many Republicans say there is solid evidence of global warming as say there is not (46% each). Among those who agree with the Tea Party, 70% say there is not solid evidence of warming, while 61% of non-Tea Party Republicans say global warming does exist.

Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say there is solid evidence that the earth has been getting warmer over the last few decades. Republicans, however, face greater internal divisions over this issue than do Democrats. Just 25% of Tea Party Republicans say there is solid evidence of global warming, compared with 61% of non-Tea Party Republicans.