Surprise Poll Shows Republican Voters Bucking Historical Trend by Edging Democrats in Enthusiasm
In yet another manifestation of the way President Donald Trump has turned conventional politics on its ear, a new poll shows Republicans are fired up about the 2020 election in an unprecedented level of enthusiasm.
The Gallup poll showed that 66 percent of Republicans are more excited to vote next year in the presidential race than in previous elections. Democrats are also expressing a high level of enthusiasm at 65 percent.
But even Gallup said that’s not the real story. Gallup said that its own historic trend is that voters “who identify with the political party of the incumbent president have been less enthusiastic about voting than members of the opposing party.”
As an example, Gallup noted that leading up to the 2000 election, ending the era of former President Bill Clinton, Republicans measured 12 percentage points higher than Democrats. When former President George W. Bush, a Republican, was nearing the end of his term, Gallup noted that Democrats were champing at the bit to vote. Republicans? Not so much.
That trend also held during the administration of former President Barack Obama, when Democrats’ enthusiasm tumbled from its highs in 2008.
In September 2011, 58 percent of Republicans were enthusiastic about the coming election as opposed to 45 percent of Democrats, according to Gallup’s results at the time. In July 2012, when the Republicans were coalescing behind nominee Mitt Romney, GOP enthusiasm had somewhat cooled to 51 percent but Democratic enthusiasm was a stone-cold 39 percent, according to Gallup’s survey at the time.
“History would suggest that Democrats would be more keyed up to vote than Republicans, but that isn’t the case in this early marker taken nearly a year before Election Day 2020,” Gallup wrote in its findings.
The poll found that overall, 64 percent of those sampled were enthusiastic about voting, one of the highest numbers Gallup has recorded. On average, 52 percent of voters express enthusiasm more than six months before an election.
“Given how much time remains before the 2020 presidential election, it’s possible that Americans’ reports of increased fervor for voting could soar even higher — perhaps even reaching new heights in Gallup’s 20-year trend,” Gallup wrote.
Trump spoke about the enthusiasm of his supporters during a recent rally in Monroe, Louisiana.
“Generations of American patriots sacrificed everything they had to secure this republic and your sacred right to vote. We will not let the Democrats take that incredible privilege away. The American people are fed up with Democrat lies, hoaxes, smears, slanders and scams. The Democrats’ shameful conduct has created an angry majority, and that’s what we are, we’re a majority and we’re angry,” Trump said.
Trump said voters can change Washington with their ballots.
“We’ll vote the do-nothing Democrats out of office in 2020, especially, we’re going to take back the House. And we’re going to focus hard, like those 36 Democrats in Trump areas, areas that I won by a lot,” he said.
Trump said that voter enthusiasm was the reason he was elected in the first place.
“When I ran, something happened that was amazing. The lines were, I’ll tell you what, in some cases, miles long, and they saw something, they said, ‘What is going on?’ And you know what was going on? Probably the greatest election in the history of our country. Really, it’s your election, I was your spokesman,” Trump said.
“I was the person that was able to tell a message, but I’m representing you,” he said.
Trump summed up his support this way: “We’re one movement, we’re one people, we’re one family, and we are one glorious nation under God.”
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