Half of the Republican Party’s voters believe that the party base is becoming “more conservative” than GOP leadership, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey released on Thursday.
The poll asked participants if Republican voters were becoming more conservative or more liberal than the party’s leadership. Half of those who responded chose “more conservative.”
A plurality of Democrats and independents – 41 and 36 percent – also agreed with that assessment.
When the same question was asked of Democrats about their party and its leader, 47 percent responded that they believed the party’s base was becoming more liberal than the leadership.
A large majority (57 percent) of Republicans who answered the question believed that the Democratic base was becoming more liberal than the party leadership.
The survey was released as both parties get into election mode for the 2022 midterm elections. Democrats currently have a narrow majority in the House of Representative and a one-vote majority in the Senate with the vote of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker.
The survey shows that the American electorate is becoming increasingly polarized, with each party's voters further from the center.
The survey noted that the “percentage of GOP voters who say they’re more conservative than Republican leaders has increased 14 points in a year,” reported Breitbart.