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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Pew Research Center Takes “A Deep Dive Into Party Affiliation”

The Pew Research Center has come out with “A Deep Dive Into Party Affiliation: Sharp Differences by Race, Gender, Generation, Education,” a massive survey (25,000 interviews in 2014) which should be of interest to anyone following politics.
There’s a lot to chew on here. The time-challenged may have more fun cutting to the chase, “2014 Party Identification Detailed Tables,” where we have interesting data for all kinds of demographic sub-groups. Here you can rank the most pro-Democratic demographic sub-groups.
Here’s a top-30 ranking list for “Dem/Lean Dem %” demographic sub-groups, culled from the tables:
Black Protestant…82
Black, Non Hispanic…80
Atheist…72
Agnostic…69
Asian, non-Hispanic (English-speaking only)…65
Post-Graduate Women…64
Total unaffiliated (religious) Silent (69-86)…64
Total unaffiliated (religious) Millennial (18-33)…62
Jewish…61
Hispanic Catholic Xer (34-49)…61
Total unaffiliated (religious) Boomer (50-68)…60
Total unaffiliated (religious) Xer (34-49)…60
Hispanic Catholic Boomer (50-68)…59
Hispanic Catholic…58
Post-graduate degree…57
College grad Women…57
Nothing in Particular (religious)…57
Urban…57
Never married…56
Living with Partner…55
Middle Atlantic (DE DC MD NJ NY PA)…55
Divorced/Separated…54
Unmarried…54
<$30,000 Family Income...54 Millenial (18-33) Women...54 GenXer (34-49) Women...53 College Women...53 Hispanic Catholic Millennial (18-33)...53 Northeast...53 Pacific (AK CA HI OR WA)...53 Such a list, properly weighted for size of the various constituencies (Pew's chart provides the figures), could be useful in voter turnout targeting, after making allowances for overlapping groups. No big shockers in the list, though I was mildly surprised by the pro-Democratic leanings of the religiously unaffiliated silent generation (age 69-86), who were the 7th most pro-Democratic constituency. For those who were wondering whatever happened to the Hippies, the chart also offers a clue in the stats for the "older boomers" (ages 59-68), who were Dem/Lean Dem at 49 percent, while only 41 percent for "Rep/Lean Rep." This cohort was the 2nd most pro-Democratic group of seniors. But it looks like many of them became moderate to conservative as well. As for the demographic sub-group least likely to self-i.d. as Dem/Lean Dem, that would be White Non-Hispanic Evangelical Protestant Millennials (18-33) at 19 percent. The mirror image low score for Rep/Leans Rep goes to Black/Non Hispanic at 11 percent.

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