Politicsparty identificationPoliticsGallup

Party ID Shifts Back To Democrats In 2012

Democrats Regain Edge In Key Polling Measure
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By 

Senior Reporter and Polling Editor, HuffPost

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Democrats ended 2012 with more supporters than Republicans, reversing a two-year virtual tie between the two parties, according to Gallup.

On average, 47 percent of Americans in 2012 said they were Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, compared to 42 percent who were Republicans or Republican-leaning independents, Gallup reports.

The Democrats' 5-point margin is an uptick from 2010 and 2011, when the two parties ran almost even.

Nearly all of the change comes from independents leaning in a different direction, rather than any shift in beliefs among party stalwarts. Independents in 2012 were more likely to lean toward Democrats than Republicans by 2 points -- a reversal from the previous year, when they favored the GOP by 4 points.

The numbers of Americans identifying as belonging to either the Republican or the Democratic Party remained basically the same, while the total number of independents matches 2011's record high.

Levels of party identification regularly shift, especially among less dogmatic voters.

As Gallup notes, Democrats have historically held a lead in party ID:

Gallup has measured party identification and leaning consistently since 1991. During that time, Democrats usually have held an advantage, including the high margin of 12 points in 2008, the year President Barack Obama was elected. Republicans have held an advantage in only one year -- 1991, when President George H.W. Bush enjoyed record-high approval ratings after the Persian Gulf War. The two parties were essentially tied in 1994-1995, 2001-2003, and 2010-2011.

Gallup's party ID numbers for the last year come from telephone interviews of 20,800 adults, with a 1 percent margin of error.

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Before You Go

Biggest Political Hypocrites
John Ensign (01 of15)
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Then-Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) was a proponent of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have banned states from recognizing same-sex marriage. "Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded," he argued on the Senate floor in 2004. He also called on President Bill Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, saying it had destroyed the president's credibility. Yet in 2009, Ensign admitted that he had had an extramarital affair with a former campaign staffer who was also the wife of one of his top aides. An ethics investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee and the FBI followed, and Ensign resigned in 2011. (credit:AP)
Newt Gingrich (02 of15)
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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has a long and rich history of hypocrisy, including receiving a reported $1.6 million in consulting fees from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before blaming the mortgage giants for the country's housing crisis and endorsing President Barack Obama's health care plan before the 2012 presidential primary campaign, during which he hammered Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan for being similar to Obamacare. But his crowning hypocrisy was probably leading impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton in the 1990s over the Monica Lewinsky scandal while Gingrich himself was having an extramarital affair. His ex-wife Marianne recently claimed that while they were married, Newt requested an "open marriage" so that he could continue the affair with his now-wife, Callista. (credit:Getty Images)
Charlie Rangel(03 of15)
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Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) stepped down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee after he was congressionally censured for failing to pay income taxes and filing misleading financial statements, among other misdeeds. But that didn't stop him from hammering Mitt Romney for his lack of transparency on tax returns. "Before he judges other people about paying federal income taxes, Governor Romney should come clean about the tax returns he's hiding from voters," Rangel said. (credit:AP)
Paul Ryan (04 of15)
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The failed vice presidential candidate has been an outspoken opponent of earmark spending, but that didn't stop Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) from arranging a $735,000 earmark to construct a transit center in his hometown of Janesville, Wis. Likewise, after slamming President Barack Obama's stimulus package, Ryan sought stimulus funds for several projects in his district. (credit:Getty Images)
Michele Bachmann (05 of15)
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Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was the original sponsor of legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but her war against "socialized medicine" hasn't stopped husband Marcus from applying for public funds for his "pray away the gay" counseling practice. Bachmann, an outspoken opponent of big government, has also personally benefited from federal farm subsidies. She recently described the Internal Revenue Service, which earlier in her career employed her to sue people in tax collection cases, as "the most heartless organization anyone knows of." (credit:AP)
John Boehner(06 of15)
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House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has loudly congratulated himself for the GOP House jobs package -- even though economists say the package's 32 bills will do little to create jobs -- while working hard to block President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan. A longtime critic of wasteful government spending, Boehner (along with other House Republican leaders) spent $1.5 million defending the Defense of Marriage Act. (credit:AP)
Al Gore(07 of15)
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He won an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth" and a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, but Al Gore's own carbon footprint was once an inconvenient issue. His 20-room Nashville mansion and pool house in 2006 racked up $30,000 in utility bills, consuming more than 20 times the national home average, according to a report by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. A Gore spokesperson disputed the conservative think tank's report and said that renovations on the home cut its electricity and natural gas consumption about 40 percent by the next year. (credit:AP)
Strom Thurmond(08 of15)
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Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), a famed segregationist, spent many of his 48 years in the U.S. Senate fighting racial integration and equality, punctuated by his 24-hour filibuster in a failed attempt to kill the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Six months after Thurmond's death in 2003, a biracial woman named Essie Mae Washington-Williams revealed that the late senator was her father. Her mother was 16 and working for Thurmond’s parents when she became pregnant. (credit:Getty Images)
Mitt Romney(09 of15)
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From his opposition to President Barack Obama's health care reform, which was patterned after his own plan in Massachusetts, to his politically expedient shifts in positions on immigration, climate change and abortion, Mitt Romney has a record of hypocrisy too expansive and well documented for any Etch A Sketch to erase. (credit:AP)
Mark Foley(10 of15)
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During his time in office, former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) introduced a bill against child pornography, fought to expand federal sex offender laws, supported anti-gay legislation and chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. Then he was caught sending graphic sex messages to underage males working as congressional pages. He quickly resigned in 2006. (credit:AP)
David Vitter(11 of15)
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When Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) admitted his involvement in the "D.C. Madam" scandal in 2007, it didn’t end his career or lead to any criminal charges. It also didn't end his attempts to narrow prosecutorial discretion for others in vulnerable positions. At a hearing last year on the HALT Act, which would have suspended discretionary immigration protections, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) accused Vitter of "hypocrisy to seek to limit the use of discretion when one has enjoyed the benefit himself." Vitter has also advocated for abstinence-only sex education and in 2004 ran on a "family values" platform that included opposition to same-sex marriage. (credit:Getty Images)
Sarah Palin(12 of15)
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Sarah Palin has been an outspoken opponent of President Barack Obama's health care plan, but a more socialized system wasn't always so problematic for her. In 2010, she admitted to having taken trips across the Canadian border to receive single-payer health care long before she brought "death panels" into the war against the Affordable Care Act. (credit:AP)
Larry Craig(13 of15)
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Former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) is best known for his 2007 airport bathroom trip that ended in a same-sex-sting arrest for lewd conduct after he allegedly solicited sex from an undercover officer. Craig blamed his wandering foot on his "wide stance" but soon announced his resignation, then decided to serve out the rest of his term. While in office, he had supported the anti-gay marriage Federal Marriage Amendment and voted against a measure to include anti-gay bias in hate crimes legislation. He received a rating of zero from the Human Rights Campaign for his votes on LGBT issues.CORRECTION: A previous version of this slide implied that Craig followed through on his threat to resign. (credit:Getty Images)
Eliot Spitzer(14 of15)
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While serving as the Democratic governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer was brought down by a federal wiretap that revealed he patronized a $1,000-an-hour prostitute named Ashley Dupre at a Washington, D.C., hotel. Further investigation uncovered the prostitution ring Emperors Club VIP, and numerous money transfers to the club were traced back to Client 9 -- the governor. As New York state attorney general, Spitzer prosecuted at least two prostitution rings, and as governor he forced state comptroller Alan Hevesi out of office for the comparatively minor offense of using a state car and chauffeur for his sick wife. (credit:AP)
Scott DesJarlais(15 of15)
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Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) just won a second term despite recent revelations that he had sex with a patient while working as a physician and later urged her to get an abortion. Yet DesJarlais' campaign platform opposed abortion. "All life should be cherished and protected. We are pro-life," his website stated. There’s more. According to transcripts from his 2001 divorce proceedings, released after the election, the congressman and his then-wife made a "mutual" decision for her to have two abortions while they were married. (credit:AP)
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