Democrats grew more liberal over the course of President Obama’s eight-year presidency, according to an analysis of voter data provided by a leading GOP pollster.
President-elect Trump, a Republican, defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton last month by winning more votes in the Electoral College, compensating for his loss in the popular vote. Trump pulled it off by luring blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania and the Midwest that had historically voted Democrat.
Democrats have begun to examine how to win them back. But it could be challenging given that their party is significantly more liberal — and less moderate — than when Obama ran as a post-partisan unifier in 2008.
In 2008, the year Obama was elected, 40 percent of Democrats self-identified as “liberal” on the ideological scale. In 2016, as voters decided on Obama’s successor, that number had jumped 10 points, to 50 percent.
Democrats identifying as moderates plummeted eight points, from 47 percent to 39 percent, during the same period.
“Among the overall electorate, the country has remained center-right,” Republican pollster David Winston wrote in his post-election report, based on exit polling conducted by the media. “The big change came among Democrats, who have become more liberal.”
Even some of the progressives in the party appear to recognize the pickle Democrats are in as they try and satisfy their base while becoming more welcoming to voters who have bolted because didn’t feel welcome or listened to.
“Now is the time to revitalize the Democratic Party and bring in people who have not been welcome in the past,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is backing Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota in the race for national Democratic Party chairman, said recently in a speech to progressives.
Republicans have remained relatively consistent in their “conservative” ideological makeup since Obama entered the White House in 2009.
Then, 64 percent of Republicans self-identified as conservative. Now, that figure is 65 percent. The number of Republicans who identify as moderates also has not changed — it was 31 percent eight years ago and sits at 31 percent based on 2016 exit polling.
Overall, the electorate is slightly more liberal and slightly less moderate. Voters self-identifying as liberal jumped from 22 percent to 26 percent since 2008, with moderates as a percentage of voters decreasing from 44 percent to 38 percent.
The percentage of conservatives has remained basically the same, increasing from 34 percent to 35 percent.
