Report highlights
Family First: Reclaiming the GOP’s Forgotten Constituency
American Principles Project · 2019
In fact, as of the current Congress, 43 of the 50 wealthiest House districts are now represented by Democrats.
Key numbers
43 of 50
of the wealthiest U.S. House districts are represented by Democrats.
In fact, as of the current Congress, 43 of the 50 wealthiest House districts are now represented by Democrats.
45%+
of voters in battleground states believe the GOP tax and deregulation agenda hurt the middle class.
For example, recent polling from the Heritage Foundation shows that, even amid our current booming economy, more than 45 percent of voters in battleground states — and a majority of voters in nine swing districts which voted for Trump in 2016 — believe the Republican economic agenda of tax cuts and de-regulation has actually hurt the middle class.
5,285
Americans ages 20–65 were surveyed in the APRB Survey, November 9–15, 2018.
In November 2018, the American Principles Project commissioned a nationally representative poll of 5,285 Americans aged 20-65.
1.6 pts
Trump’s 2016 deficit among married voters; he lost never-married voters by 35 points.
Although our survey indicated Trump lost this age group overall to Hillary Clinton, his deficit among married voters was only 1.6 percentage points.
5 vs 45
GOP margin of defeat in 2018 among married vs. never-married voters (points).
While they lost married voters in this age group by 5 points, they lost divorced, cohabiting, and never married voters by 19, 44, and 45 points, respectively.
2×
Black and Hispanic married voters were more than twice as likely to vote Republican as their unmarried counterparts.
In 2018, Black and Hispanic married voters were more than twice as likely as their divorced, cohabiting, and never married counterparts to vote Republican.
30% vs 16%
of minority voters from intact families voted GOP, vs. those from other situations.
The beneficial effect of marriage for Republi cans also extends to children, as nearly twice as many minority voters from intact families voted for GOP candidates as those from other situations (30 percent to 16 percent).
42%
of married women voted for Trump in 2016, less than 4 points behind Clinton.
Again in the 20- 65 age group, Trump won nearly 42 percent of married women in 2016, less than 4 points behind Clinton.
80%+
of married respondents voted in 2016, the highest of any marital group.
Over 80 percent of married respondents in our survey said they voted in the 2016 election and 76 percent said they voted in 2018, the highest figures in both elections among all marital status groups.
74%
of married respondents reject the idea that marriage is an outdated institution.
Naturally, married respondents were far more likely than their counterparts to oppose the idea that “marriage is an outdated institution” — 74 percent of them disagreed with this statement, while only 51 percent of never married and 46 percent of cohabiting respondents similarly did so.
33%
of married respondents clearly oppose abortion rights, vs. 15% of cohabiting respondents.
In addition, 33 percent of married respondents expressed clear opposition to abortion rights, a higher proportion than was found among divorced (29 percent), never married (24 percent), or cohabiting (15 percent) respondents.
2%
of respondents were both politically liberal and pro–free market.
In fact, for far too long many Republicans have been focused on the wrong political paradigm, chasing the unicorn of “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” suburban voters who research has shown are virtually non-existent. 6 Indeed, our own survey shows that the proportion of respondents who reported being politically liberal and also supporting free markets was a measly 2 percent.
47–38
Voters picked Democrats to deliver a better economy in 2012.
In 2012, Mitt Romney ran a campaign almost obsessively centered on the themes of “job creation” and economic growth, only to see voters choose Democrats as the party more likely to deliver a better economy by a nine-point margin (47 percent to 38 percent).
47–47
Americans split evenly between “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in February 2019, up from 55–38 pro-choice.
By the next month, however, the “pro-life gap” had closed, with Americans now evenly divided between the labels, 47-47.
20% → 34%
Democrats choosing the pro-life label, January to February 2019.
This dramatic change was largely driven by a significant increase in Democrats choosing the pro-life label, from 20 percent to 34 percent, as well as a major increase in pro-life affiliation of younger respondents under age 45, from 28 percent to 47 percent.
80%
of Americans said abortion should be restricted to the first three months or further (February 2019).
By February, that number had ticked up to 80 percent.
64%
of Democrats supported restricting abortion to the first three months or further.
Moreover, 64 percent of Democrat respondents in the latter poll said they supported such abortion restrictions, as did 83 percent of independents.
50% vs 31%
oppose vs. support transgender students using opposite-sex bathrooms (Rasmussen, May 2019).
A May Rasmussen poll, for example, showed that half of Americans oppose “allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms of the opposite biological sex” versus only 31 percent support.
54% vs 28%
oppose vs. support transgender students on opposite-sex sports teams.
A May Rasmussen poll, for example, showed that half of Americans oppose “allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms of the opposite biological sex” versus only 31 percent support. 14 On the question of school athletics, the gap was even more pronounced: 54 percent opposed “allowing transgender students to participate on the sports of the gender they identify with” while only 28 percent supported it.
63% → 45%
LGBT acceptance among 18–34 year olds fell from 2017 to 2019 (GLAAD).
Indeed, given the fawning attention LGBT issues typically receive in the media and entertainment industries, it was even more shocking to see the pro-LGBT organization GLAAD admit that its 2019 polling found a decrease in LGBT acceptance among 18-34 year olds for the second straight year, falling from 63 percent in 2017 to 53 percent in 2018 and 45 percent this year.
15
states have declared pornography a public health crisis since 2016.
Since 2016, fifteen states have passed resolutions declaring pornography a public health crisis.
In their words
the traditional issues are being eclipsed — because if ‘peace and prosperity’ worked, there would still be a Republican majority in the House.the way to win back suburban voters is by focusing on key issues like the economy.the Republican economic message was a winning one, but because the suburbs didn’t hear it clearly, the GOP lost its advantage.Rather, the Republican Party’s future is wholly dependent on a renewal of the American family, and it is on this goal that conservative leaders should be fully focused moving forward.Communities where marriages and families are flourishing are likely to be places where both economic and cultural conservatism thrive.If this great American experiment is to continue, we must once again put the family first.Read the full reportThe original from American Principles Project