Favorability of the Democratic and Republican parties are diverging, according to a poll released Wednesday from ABC News and the Washington Post. The survey of 1,024 adults showed that 49 percent perceived the Democratic party as favorable, with 42 seeing it as unfavorable. Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed viewed the Republican party favorably, with 53 percent viewing it unfavorably. From ABC Pollster Gary Langer’s analysis:
The difference is that 32 percent of Americans in this survey identify themselves as Democrats, vs. 25 percent as Republicans, levels that have held essentially steady the past three years. That’s down for the GOP, which achieved parity with the Democrats in 2003 but has lost ground since.
(Independents now predominate, accounting for 39 percent in this survey.) Intensity of sentiment is another challenge for the Republican Party: Substantially more Americans see it “strongly” negatively than strongly positively, 33 percent vs. 18 percent, while the Democratic Party breaks even (28 percent on both sides).
The PollTracker average shows the Democratic Party with a favorability rating of 46.6 percent and an unfavorability rating of 42.9 percent, while the Republican Party has posted a 39.6 percent favorability rating with an unfavorability rating of 49.7 percent.
