Fewer voters identifying as liberal: poll
Fewer voters are identifying as liberal and more voters are identifying as moderate or uncertain, according to a new poll released Thursday.
A Morning Consult poll found that the percentage of voters self-identifying their ideological affiliation as “somewhat liberal,” “liberal” or “very liberal” has dropped 7 points over the last five years the survey was conducted.
Liberals have made up a little over or a little under a third of U.S. voters over the last five years, while conservatives have maintained the majority at just under 40 percent.
From 2017 to 2022, the share of voters identifying as liberal dipped from 34 percent to 27 percent, while those identifying as conservative rose from 38 percent to 39 percent.
However, voters identifying as moderates or uncertain about their ideological affiliation have increased.
Those who identified as moderate increased 4 percentage points, from 24 percent in 2017 to 28 percent in 2022. Those who identified as uncertain also increased in that same time period, from 3 percent to 7 percent, according to the survey.
The poll noted that the percentage of Democrats identifying with a liberal ideology has also declined since 2017, while more Republicans are identifying as conservative.
In general, young voters ages 18 to 34 left liberal identification behind at higher rates than older age groups. The age group’s liberal identification decreased from 47 percent in 2017 to 34 percent in 2022.
Liberal identification also shrunk among voters without a college degree more so than among those with higher education.
The percentage of Black voters identifying as liberal went down from 49 to 34 percent over the last five years. Black voters identifying as moderate and those identifying as uncertain each went up 7 points, and conservative identification went up 2 points.
Among Hispanic voters, liberal identification dipped from 50 percent to 34 percent, while moderate identification increased by 5 percentage points and uncertain identification rose 7 percentage points. Conservative identification went up by 4 percentage points.
The poll, conducted on an annual basis from 2017 to 2022, surveyed representative samples of 750,158 registered voters each.
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