U.S. Elections & Voters

Today, no more than about one-in-five Democratic voters see a good chance of voting for any other Democrat.

39% of Americans identify as independents, more than they do as Democrats ( 32%) or as Republicans (23%). This is the highest percentage of independents in more than 75 years of public opinion polling.

Survey Report The 2016 presidential campaign has gotten off to a slow start with voters. A majority of registered voters (58%) say they have given at least some thought to candidates who may run for president in 2016, but that is 10 points lower than at a comparable point in the 2008 campaign – the […]

Survey Report This week’s political battles over immigration, funding for the Department of Homeland Security and the Keystone XL pipeline have been waged by opposing parties that possess starkly different strengths and weaknesses. Majorities say the Democratic Party is open and tolerant, cares about the middle class and is not “too extreme.” By contrast, most […]

If Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wins the Republican presidential nomination next year, he'll be the first major-party nominee without a college degree since Barry Goldwater in 1964.

A group of 26 states filed a lawsuit in December to stop his executive actions on immigration, arguing that he didn't have the authority to make the changes.

By Andrew Kohut, Founding Director, Pew Research Center Special to The Washington Post.  The 2016 presidential campaign, now in full swing in the media and the political class, starts with a fundamental question: How can American voters, who are so dissatisfied with Washington politics and the state of the nation, name the wife of one […]

For the first time on record, more non-Mexicans than Mexicans were apprehended at U.S. borders in 2014 by the Customs and Border Patrol.

President Obama's change in policy towards Cuba comes as the Cuban American population itself is changing—in its demographics, views of U.S.-Cuba policy, and its politics.