Republicans Make Huge Gains Among White Voters

Pew has a new voter identification poll out. I've been meaning to write about it for a few days but more important things kept popping up. The upshot of the poll is that the Republicans have made huge gains among white voters. In 2008 the Republicans held only a 2 percent advantage among white voters. In the recent poll that number is 13 percent. The Republicans made a very modest inroad with blacks, managing to shave the 88 percent Democratic affiliation to 86 percent. The enormous lead the Democrats enjoyed among
the Millennial generation -- those born after 1980 has been more than cut in half. This was the supposedly the new emerging Democratic super majority. In 2008 they identified with the Democrats by a margin of roughly 2 to 1. Today 52 percent identify with the Democratic party and 39 percent lean Republican. In all this good new there is one caveat that should make the Republicans a bit more sanguine in their celebration. The percent of voters who actually identify themselves as Republicans has remained flat at 28 percent. The gains have come from independents who lean Republican. On the other hand flat is better than losing voters as the Democrats went from 38 percent to 34 percent among all voters. Now both Democrats and independants claim 34 percent of all voters. I encourage you to read the full report.