Republicans Increasingly Positive About Campaign

A new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 18-21 among 1,005 adults, finds that 63% of the public says the campaign is interesting, while 28% say it is dull. Last month, 53% found the campaign interesting.

From January through June, majorities said the campaign was dull, and no more than about four-in-ten found it interesting. 73% of Republicans say the campaign is interesting, up 23 points since early September and by far the highest percentage of the year. More independents also view the campaign as interesting (56% today, 45% in September). The percentage of Democrats who say the campaign is interesting, which jumped 19 points between June and September, is unchanged since then (66%). Compared with a month ago, far more Republicans also view the campaign informative (69% now, 49% then,). And substantially fewer say the campaign is “too long” than did so in September (42% now, 62% then). In fact, the percentage of Republicans who say the campaign is too long is now about as low as it was in January (49%) at the start of the GOP primaries. Democrats’ and independents’ views about whether the campaign is informative and too long are little changed since September. On both measures, opinions among Democrats turned much more positive between June and September.