Gallup Examines Democrats
November 10, 2011 by Sam Rolley
A report by Gallup published on Tuesday notes two changes that have occurred in the Democratic Party since it nominated Barack Obama as its 2008 Presidential candidate: It is more liberal and less white now.
The study examined a segment of the population who identified themselves as Democrats or Democrat-leaning independents and found that since 2008 this segment of the population has fallen from 50 to 43 percent. The number of Republicans grew by 3 percent — to 40 percent — as did independents who preferred neither party — to 15 percent — during the same time frame.
Among Democrats, the number of those who described themselves as liberal grew from 35 to 37 percent, a fact researchers attribute to moderates and conservatives who once identified with some Democratic values feeling largely disenfranchised in recent years.
Over the past three years, the Democratic Party also noticed a small ethnic shift, according to the findings, with the number of party members who identified themselves as black growing from 16 to 19 percent and non-Hispanic white Democrats decreasing from 66 to 63 percent.
Other Gallup findings indicate no significant shift in the fact that Democrats are less likely than the U.S. population as a whole to marry or attend regular church services and more likely to be college educated.
The age of the Party has decreased slightly as more 18- to 29-year-olds identify themselves as Democrats. It also has become more female; women represent 55 percent of the Party’s base.
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