Number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats Falls to Four-Year Low

lewinskyFor the most part in this country registered Democrats have always outnumbered registered Republicans. This is especially the case after the last few years since a lot of pissed off Republicans became independents because the Republicans morphed into “lite” versions of Democrats. During the election in 2008, over 40% of those polled by Rasmussen considered themselves Democrats. Well, thanks to Congress and Obama, the tied is turing. The polling goes back to 2004 when the memory of 9/11 started to fade and the Bush bashing became fashionable. In November of 2009, 36.0% of American adults said they were Democrats. That’s down from 37.8% in October and the lowest number of Democrats since December 2005 when the percentage of people claiming to be a Democrat was 35.9%. The number of Republicans inched up by just over a point in November to 33.1%. That’s within the narrow range that Republicans have experienced throughout 2009 – from a low of 31.9% to a high of 33.6%.

The number of adults not affiliated with either party grew half a point last month to 30.8%.
Despite the changes, there are still more Democrats than Republicans in the nation. But the gap is down to 2.9 percentage points, the smallest since December 2007. Between November 2004 and 2006, the Democratic advantage in partisan identification grew by 4.5 percentage points. That foreshadowed the Democrats’ big gains in the midterm elections. The gap grew by another 1.5 percentage points between November 2006 and 2008 heading into the election of President Obama. However, the gap is currently 4.7 percentage points smaller than it was in November 2008. It remains to be seen where the trend will head in 2010.

Keep in mind that figures reported in this article are for all adults, not likely voters. Republicans are a bit more likely to participate in elections than Democrats.

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December 2, 2009 · Filed Under Democrats, Political Polling


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