The Tea Party Gap within the Republican Party
28 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2014
Date Written: 2014
Abstract
For the first time, the American National Election Studies (ANES) in its 2012 dataset included variables regarding support for the Tea Party movement. This study analyzes the 2012 ANES data to compare the attitudes of Tea Party supporters to Republicans who do not support the Tea Party. Not only are Tea Party supporters demographically different from Non-Tea Party Republicans, but there are significant ideological and policy preference differences between the two groups as well. On virtually every issue analyzed, the issue positions of Tea Party supporters are more conservative, sometime considerably so, than Non-Tea Party Republicans. Theses demographic and ideological disparities have enormous implications for the future of the Republican Party.
Keywords: Tea Party, Republican Party, Democratic Party, Barack Obama
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation