New Pew Study Shows Democratic Party's Growing Advantage With College Educated Voters

When I started teaching political science in the early 1990s, Republicans had a modest advantage with college educated voters of about 6 to 8%. Between 1994 and 2010, the Democratic Party slowly drew even, and then over the last decade it has opened up a huge advantage with highly educated voters.

This week the Pew Research Center released a study on voting trends and noted that college educated Americans now favor the Democratic Party by a whopping 20 point margin, 57% to 37%, one of the largest gaps ever noted in party affiliation research. And among those with some post-graduate study the margin is 61% to 33%.

This shift in partisan preference among the highly educated will be especially important in future elections because the number of Americans with a college degree continues to increase, from 24% of the population in 1994 to 35% today. And. the gender breakdown among college grads is also noteworthy. Democrats have a modest advantage with college educated men, but a enormous margin among women grads, 65 to 30%.

We have discussed the reasons for this shift before, and it boils down to this: the GOP is now out of step with highly educated Americans on a wide variety of issues including gun control, immigration, race, the environment and LBGT rights.

The Pew study did identify the remaining base of the Republican Party. They still maintain large advantages among white evangelicals and white males without a college education. Those are the groups that President Donald Trump will attempt to rally this Fall during his reelection campaign.

#research #politics

By: Don Lam & Curated Content