Recent Surveys Indicate the New Tea Party

Movement Could Play a Roll in 2010 Elections

Recent surveys by national media outlets indicate America’s new tea party movement could play a role in the 2010 elections. 

According to a New York Times/CBS News Poll (NYT/CBS) 18 percent of Americans identify themselves as a Tea Party supporter. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll (CNN/ORC), conducted during the same week, found one in 10 Americans to be active[i] in the Tea Party movement.  
 

Both surveys agree that, in general, Tea Party supporters are more likely to be male, white, married and age 45 or older.  According to the NYT/CBS poll, Tea Party supporters (39%) are more likely than the general public (12%) to describe themselves as “very conservative”  and to describe President Barrack Obama as “very liberal” (77% to 31%). The NYT/CBS survey finds most Tea Party supporters very pessimistic about the direction of the country.  More than half believe the policies of the Obama administration favor the poor – compared to 11 percent of the general public.

According to the CNN/ORC survey, nearly eight-in-ten Tea Party supporters would support a Republican candidate for Congress in the 2010 mid-term elections. The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll found that in the generic Congressional toss-up question, Republican candidates beat Democrats 42% to 38%. When the question included a candidate from the Tea Party, Democrats beat Republican candidates 36% to 24% with the Tea Party candidate receiving 13%.

For more information about the New York Times/CBS News survey, go to http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/14/us/politics/20100414-tea-party-poll-graphic.html.  For more about the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll see http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/04/rel2f.pdf.  And, for more on the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll go to http://www.pollingreport.com/2010.html.