Tag: Election 2016

Large Plurality of Americans Identify as Independent

Buck Banks

42%

For the fifth consecutive year, at least four in 10 U.S. adults identified as political independents. “The 42% identifying as independents in 2015 was down slightly from the record 43% in 2014,” reports Gallup. “This elevated percentage of political independents leaves Democratic (29%) and Republican (26%) identification at or near recent low points, with the modest Democratic advantage roughly where it has been over the past five years.”

Republican Likely Voters Well Behind Dems for 2016

Buck Banks

9 points

Difference in the percentage of Republicans likely to vote in the 2016 election versus Democrats, compared with a 6-point deficit in the year leading up to Barack Obama’s 2012 victory, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Key finding: “While the American electorate has become more diverse the last three years, the party’s support among Hispanic likely voters and younger likely voters has shrunk significantly.”

No Middle Ground in 2016

Buck Banks

If the Republicans win the presidency in 2016, they will also almost inevitably control both the Senate and the House of Representatives, giving them virtually unfettered command over the entire federal government to go along with their domination of the great majority of the state governments. The Republican president could easily be in a position to appoint new justices to the Supreme Court for an unstoppable right-wing majority that would last for a generation to come. … If, however, the Democrats win the presidency in 2016, they will almost certainly take back the Senate and make gains in the House – and the Democratic president will likely be able to appoint new justices to the Supreme Court that will eventually comprise a liberal majority. Between these two stark alternatives, there is no middle ground. In 2016, the country will become either one thing or the other.

— Sean Wilentz, in Rolling Stone