A new survey suggests the Democratic Party is struggling to excite voters as the 2016 election cycle shifts into full gear.
According to Rasmussen Report’s latest poll of likely U.S. voters, Democrats split almost evenly on how enthusiastic they are about the race for the White House. Fifty percent are looking forward to the race among Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, while 44 percent “have had enough.”
On the Republican side, however, 71 percent of GOP voters are eager to see the race play out and only 25 percent say they have grown tired of the presidential contest. Overall, 58 percent of voters are enthusiastic about the election, while 37 percent are not.
In addition to Donald Trump’s celebrity candidacy in the diverse field of contenders, the five Republican primary debates have bolstered significantly more interest in the election than the three Democratic debates.
While 19 percent of independent voters tuned into the GOP debates, only 1 percent tuned into the Democratic debates. Several prominent Democrats, including Sanders and O’Malley, have accused the Democratic National Committee of purposely creating an inconvenient debate schedule to benefit Clinton.
Among demographic groups, white voters are most looking forward to the 2016 contest as 60 percent expressed excitement about the presidential race, compared with 49 percent of blacks and 53 percent of other minority voters.
The survey of 1,000 likely U.S. voters was conducted on Dec. 3 and contains a margin of error plus or minus 3 percent.
