Gallup: Republicans Slipping Among All Demographics Except Frequent Churchgoers

Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

A new polling analysis from Gallup finds that the Republican Party has lost support among nearly every major demographic subgroup, from college graduates to married people to those making under $30,000 a year.

In 2001, 47 percent of college grads leaned Republican. Today, just 37 percent do. Support among married people has slid from 51 percent to 46 percent. Just 28 percent of those making less than $30,000 lean Republican, down 9 points in the past eight years.

Overall, 39 percent of the country leans Republican today, compared with 53 percent that leans Democrat. That's a dramatic change from 2001, when the country was evenly divided, with 45 percent leaning Democrat and 45 percent Republican.

Only one demographic group wholly defied the trend: weekly churchgoers. Fifty-two percent of them leaned Republican in '01, and the same proportion does today.

As the Republican Party struggles to revitalize itself, I wonder which way it will interpret these data: as evidence that frequent churchgoers are so solidly Republican that the GOP can count on them without having to work too hard on social issues like abortion or as a reminder that the party had best keep these folks happy, since there wouldn't be much of a party without them.

Here's one of the dramatic graphs from Gallup analysis:

 

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