The Gallup tracking poll of the Republican race is showing some trends nationally — namely that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s lead is being driven by older voters, which the polling organization argues will be more influential when it’s time for actual votes. From Gallup:
Newt Gingrich’s current lead in Republican preferences for the GOP presidential nomination is largely due to particularly high support from the types of Republicans who might be expected to turn out heavily in the upcoming primaries — older Republicans and core identifiers with the Republican Party. Roughly 40% of Republicans aged 55 and older as well as core Republicans (as opposed to independents who lean Republican) and conservatives currently favor Gingrich for the nomination. This contrasts with 21% to 23% of each group backing Mitt Romney.
Gingrich also does much better with men, who tend to skew more conservative. Newt gets 37 percent of males in the Gallup tracking versus 28 percent of women, while Romney sees 24 percent support from women to 22 percent of men.
