06 Jan 2004 For the First Time, Gallup Finds GOP is Most Popular Political Party in U.S.

The Gallup organization has posted an interesting article on its paid-subscription website today. I suspect it will make news.

It begins: “… 45.5% of Americans identify as Republicans or say they lean toward the Republican Party, and 45.2% identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party. The remaining 9% identify themselves as independents…. These results… are similar to what Gallup found in 2002, when 45.4% of Americans identified or leaned toward the Democratic Party and 45.3% did so toward the Republican Party. But the results from the last two years represent a major shift in American politics — the Democratic Party long held a consistent advantage in overall partisan identification in the United States. Ten years ago, Democrats enjoyed a nine-percentage-point advantage over Republicans, 49% to 40%. Historical Gallup data suggest the Democratic margin was even larger before then.”

It goes on with state-by-state analyses. America’s top five most GOP states are Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota and Nebraska; the top five most Democrat states are Vermont, Arkansas, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. DC, however, has more Democrats than any state.