Less than a quarter of all voters call themselves Republicans, a number that has dropped precipitously over the past six years, according to a new analysis.In more than 7,000 interviews conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2009, just 23 percent of voters self-identify as members of the Grand Old Party. That's down from 30 percent as recently as 2004, and the trend shows no signs of slowing.
In the first four months of the year, Pew researchers found the number of self-identified Republicans dropping from 25 percent in January to just 22 percent in April.
But unlike Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), who became the first U.S. senator in history to leap directly from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, voters who once called themselves Republicans are not ready to jump into bed with the other side. Though Democratic identification has inched up in the past six years, former Republicans are now largely calling themselves independents.
A total of 35 percent of voters call themselves Democrats, up just two points from 2004. In the past four months, Democratic identification has actually dropped four points, to 33 percent, while those who call themselves independents has risen to 39 percent.
Pew researchers say a decline in those who identify with both parties is normal following the close of an election. But the long-term slouch in which Republicans find themselves speaks to larger problems for the GOP.
Republican identification has sunk by more than five points in all four regions of the country. Just one in five voters in the Northeast call themselves Republican, the party's worst region, while 25 percent of Southerners say they are Republican, the region where the GOP performs best.
Meanwhile, more than 31 percent of voters in each region say they are Democrats.
The data is based on tens of thousands of interviews conducted every year by the Pew Research Center. So far in 2009, the Center has conducted 7,127 interviews for a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percent.
