Knox County Democrats

Regardless of which candidate you may support for the Democratic Presidential nomination, a number of positive signs that point toward a strong future for the Democratic Party have emerged over the past several weeks.

A survey by Rasmussen Reports released April 3 found that the percent of self-identified Democrats has reached record levels, and the Democrats advantage in party identification over the Republicans is the second highest ever recorded.

“In February, the number of Democrats in the United States soared to the highest level ever measured by Rasmussen Reports—41.5%. In March, despite the squabbling among their leading Presidential candidates, the Democrats held on to those gains–41.1% now consider themselves Democrats. The partisan gap now shows the Democrats with a 9.1 percentage point advantage over the Republicans. While that’s down half-a-point from a 9.7 percentage point advantage last month, it is the second largest advantage ever recorded.”

Democratic voter registration in Pennsylvania in anticipation of this month’s Presidential primary has surged past the four-million mark for the first time ever, leapfrogging registered Republicans and boding well for November’s result in this swing state. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported April 1,

“Democrats in recent weeks topped the four-million-voter mark for the first time ever. Their totals now stand at 4.1 million, compared with about 3.2 million Republicans.On the last day to register, about 33,300 first-time voters signed up as Democrats and another 46,000 Pennsylvanians switched to the blue party. By comparison in the same period, Republicans picked up about 6,000 new registrants and just 1,800 others switched to the Grand Old Party, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.”

Voter turnout has also toppled records in states that have held primaries thus far. In battleground states, additional Democratic voter turnout could shift the election results in November. According to the Dayton Daily News, in Ohio, turnout in the state’s primary last month was up nearly 83% from 2004’s primary turnout. Additionally, almost 17.5 million more voters have shown up to vote in their state’s primary election than in 2000. In Florida, nearly one million more voters showed up to vote in this year’s primary than in 2004, even as neither candidate campaigned in the state and the Democratic Party threatened to unseat the state’s delegates. In Iowa, the perennial battleground state that went for George W. Bush by only 10,000 votes, nearly twice as many voted in the state’s Caucus. In Wisconsin, voter turnout was up 32.7%. In Michigan, where Senator Obama’s name was not even listed on the ballot, turnout was a stunning 3000% higher than in the 2000 primary, and an impressive 363% higher than in 2004.

Even rural counties, which George W. Bush won by 19 percent in 2004, may be shifting towards the Democrats. “A poll conducted this summer by the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found that nationwide, rural voters tilted Democratic 46 percent to 43 percent,” reported Mother Jones magazine.

This all bodes well for the future of the Democratic Party. A large number of newly registered voters are young people such as myself. We represent the next generation of the Party, and we hold more progressive values on nearly every issue and tend to vote Democratic. In the 2006 Midterm Elections, 18-29 year-old-voters went for Democrats by a nearly 20% margin. Mother Jones also notes that 56% of “millennials” support gay marriage, 62% favor tax-financed, government-administered universal health care, and nearly twice as many consider themselves “liberal” than the general population.

Though political apathy still runs rampant on college campuses, the race for the Democratic nomination has electrified voters across the nation. Either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton would represent a remarkable and long-overdue first for our nation: the first African-American or first female President. If the aforementioned trends continue, the Democrats have the real possibility of not only taking back the White House in November, but also radically shifting the direction of our government for the foreseeable future.

Filed under: Politics