Democracy Corps is announcing a new initiative — the Republican Party Project — by releasing results from the project’s first national survey.
The President and Democrats won big in 2012 but Republicans now set the terms of the debate — governing from the gerrymandered House and half the states where they have complete control over the governorships and state legislatures. But instead of moving to the center, brokering compromise, and working with Democrats, the Republican Party has moved dramatically to the right and endangered itself as a national party — yet pundits are convinced the party will pay no price for having little national appeal.
Democracy Corps’ Republican Party Project puts the spotlight on the Republican Party. We expose the scale of dysfunction, divisions, and public resistance to the conventional wisdom. We show a Republican Party deeply divided — with Evangelicals and strong Tea Party supporters half of the party, and its most extreme elements. Moderates, a quarter of the Republican Party, hold more mainstream views on many issues — yet are drowned out in a party where they have no voice.
Through this new wave of research, we aim to help the White House and Democrats get back on the offensive. In the Civil War, General Meade did not pursue General Lee after Gettysburg and let the Confederate Army escape — extending the war two years. Unlike Meade, Democrats must pursue and push back against a Republican Party increasingly out of touch with majority America.
Watch Stan Greenberg discuss these results in a new video for Carville-Greenberg Memo.
The survey of 950 2012 voters (1300 unweighted) and 841 likely 2014 voters nationwide was conducted from July 10-15, 2013. We oversampled an extra 350 Republicans to allow for more detailed subgroup analysis.Unless otherwise noted, overall margin of error = +/-2.72 percentage points at 95% confidence. The margin of error for Republicans = +/-4.12 percentage points at 95% confidence.
New this year, we now reach 50 percent of our respondents by cell phone, in order to account for ever-changing demographics and trying to accurately sample the full American electorate.
