Republican Voters More Enthusiastic Than Democrats for 2010 Election Season
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 21, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — As the 2010 election season begins in earnest this summer, a new Gallup poll finds Republican voters more enthusiastic about it than their Democratic counterparts. With pro-abortion Democrats controlling Congress and most Republican candidates pro-life, the elections could have important pro-life consequences.
The current Congress saddled the nation with a health care bill that includes massive abortion funding, opened up abortion funding in the nation’s capitol, and refused to allow votes to stop abortion funding and promotion internationally.
The new Gallup survey, released today, shows 59% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have said they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting this year compared with past elections.
That’s the highest average Gallup has found in a midterm election year for either party since the question was first asked in 1994.
Comparatively, just 44 percent of Democrats or independent voters who lean towards the Democratic Party say they are enthusiastic about the upcoming elections.
That 15 point gap could play a significant role in assisting pro-life candidates as they take on pro-abortion incumbents.
The enthusiasm polling question does matter, as Gallup analyst Jeffrey Jones notes.
"The prior high for a party group was 50% more enthusiastic for Democrats in 2006, which is the only one of the last five midterm election years in which Democrats have had an enthusiasm advantage. In that election, Democrats won back control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since 1994," he said.
The current average is based on four measures of this enthusiasm question since February, including the recent June 11-13 USA Today/Gallup poll.
In that poll, 53% of Republicans said they were more enthusiastic than usual about voting and 39% were less enthusiastic, while 35% of Democrats said they were more enthusiastic about voting and 56% were less enthusiastic.
"The enthusiasm question has generally provided an accurate indication of which party will fare better in the midterm elections," Gallup says. "1994, the party that has had a relative advantage on the enthusiasm measure has gained congressional seats in that midterm election year. Specifically, Republicans gained seats in 1994 and 2002, while Democrats gained in 2006."
Last week, another poll, conducted by NPR, showed pro-abortion Congressional Democrats in serious trouble in the November elections. The poll predicts the kind of landslide pro-life groups hope will allow pro-life lawmakers to return to control in the House and Senate.
The Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies teamed up for the national survey of voters in key battleground districts.
It shows just 41% of voters prefer the Democratic candidate for Congress in their district while 49% favor the Republican candidate.
Worse for abortion advocates, in the 30 most competitive districts — ones where battles will likely pit pro-life versus pro-abortion candidates — voters favor the GOP candidate by a 48%-39% margin.
Those districts include 12 open seats held by Democrats and 18 vulnerable incumbents, most of whom are not pro-life. Also, the polls asked respondents about the actual name of the candidate and not just the party — making it even more likely that pro-life candidates may be swept into office in November.
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