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The U.S. party preference among Americans today is split neatly down the middle, according to a new poll from Gallup. Per their newest survey, 45 percent of U.S. adults identify as Republican or at least as Republican-leaning, with 44 percent of U.S. adults identifying as Democrats or Democrat-leaning Independents.
This demonstrates perhaps the best numbers for the Republican Party since 1991, when 48 percent of U.S. adults identified more with the GOP than the Democrat platform.
Gallup’s survey was conducted among 10,000 adults. From 2001 to 2003 and between 2010 and 2011, party preferences were either tied or separated by a single point, via their report.
They stated:
“The stronger year for Republicans in 2022 was manifested in their party’s winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Nationwide, more voters cast ballots for Republicans than Democratic U.S. House candidates last year by a margin of about three points. However, Republicans were not able to gain a majority in the U.S. Senate.”
President of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, commented on Twitter, “This is the first time Republicans held a lead in this poll since the Gulf War in 1991!”
In 2008, Democrats had a sizeable 12-point advantage over Republicans in terms of party preference identification, but that point gap dropped to just one point by 2010, per Interactive Polls. Since then, the gap has slowly closed between the two parties.
According to Gallup, Independent voters began to dominate the political preference landscape in 2009, with 41 percent of Americans now identifying as Independent compared to Republicans and Democrats, who net 28 percent each of identifiers.
Republicans jumped ahead of Democrats by one point in 2022, but it appears that Independent voters have moved swiftly to conquer the political plateau. Via Gallup’s report, the Independent voting bloc is mainly comprised of generation X and millennials.