Democrats and Republicans are increasingly likely to dislike each other and to feel hostile toward members of the other political party.
Recent YouGov polls studying the phenomenon of inter-party dislike show that most Americans who identify with a political party feel favorably toward their own political party but unfavorably toward the other party. Majorities of Democrats and Republicans also say they would be unhappy if their child married someone of the opposite party, and hostility between the two parties further increased between 2023 and 2024. Among people who identify with either party, older adults and those who identify more strongly with their political party are especially likely to view the other party negatively and their own party positively.
As part of a larger study of bipartisanship, YouGov asked 4,000 Americans how they felt about the Democratic and Republican parties in general and about specific scenarios associated with parties and partisanship. We collected these data in February 2023 and then asked the same questions of another 1,027 Americans in March and April of 2024 to see whether the extent of partisan hostility has meaningfully changed over the past year.
In 2023, majorities of Democrats (78%) had a very or somewhat favorable opinion of the Democratic Party and a very or somewhat unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party (69%). Republicans were equally likely as Democrats to hold a favorable opinion of their own party (78% were favorable toward the Republican Party) and slightly more likely than Democrats to feel unfavorably toward the other major Party (74% were unfavorable toward the Democratic Party). Only 14% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans felt favorably toward the other party while only 11% of Democrats and 12% of Republicans felt unfavorably toward their own party. Independents were more likely to hold unfavorable opinions of the Democratic (46%) and Republican (46%) Parties than they were to hold favorable opinions of either party (29% and 26%, respectively).
The 2024 survey finds increasing levels of inter-party dislike in this presidential-election year. 85% of Democrats have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party, an increase of 16 percentage points since February 2023. The share of Republicans who view the Democratic Party unfavorably rose by a similar amount: 88% of Republicans feel unfavorably toward the Democratic Party, compared to 74% last year.
There were even larger increases in the share of Democrats and Republicans who feel very unfavorably toward the other party. Between 2023 and 2024, the percentage of Democrats who feel very unfavorably toward the Republican Party increased by 21 percentage points, and the percentage of Republicans who feel very unfavorably toward the Democratic Party increased by 20 percentage points. Independents' opinions have not changed much since 2023.
Older people who identify with the Democratic or Republican Parties are more likely than younger ones to view the other political party unfavorably. In 2023, 54% of Democratic adults under 45 held unfavorable opinions of the Republican Party, compared to 85% of Democrats 45 and older. Similarly, 50% of Republican adults younger than 45 held an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party, compared to 88% of older Republicans.
Democrats and Republicans under 45 are about 15 percentage points less likely than older people who identify with their party to feel very or somewhat favorably toward their own party. They also are more likely to feel favorably toward the other party: 23% of Democrats under 45 feel favorably toward the Republican Party, compared to only 5% of older Democrats.
The surveys also asked Americans how happy or unhappy each of the following situations would make them: their child member marrying a Democrat or a Republican, being assigned to work closely with a colleague who identifies as a socialist or a MAGA supporter, Joe Biden or Donald Trump receiving an honorary degree from a nearby college, and a neighbor putting a sign in their yard that says Biden 2024 or Trump 2024. Political scientists use questions such as these to measure how socially distant Americans feel from the Democratic and Republican Parties. For each situation, we've calculated the net happiness — how much more likely Americans are to say they are to say they would be very happy or somewhat happy about it than to say they would be very unhappy or somewhat unhappy.
In 2023, Democrats had net happiness of +51 — they were 51 percentage points more likely to be happy than they were to be unhappy — about their child marrying a Democrat, and Republicans reported similar net happiness (+55) about their child marrying a Republican. Democrats (-26) and Republicans (-20) were more likely to be unhappy about their child marrying someone from the other party than to be happy, while Independents were equally likely to be happy as to be unhappy about their child marrying a Democrat (+1) or a Republican (0).
Democrats and Republicans are now less happy about their children marrying members of the opposite party than they were last year. Democrats’ net happiness about their child marrying a Republican decreased by 8 percentage points (-26 to -34) and Republicans’ net happiness about their child marrying a Democrat decreased by 14 percentage points (-20 to -34).
For all four scenarios, Democrats and Republicans are more likely to have positive net happiness — more likely to be happy than unhappy — when the situation involves their party and more likely to have negative net happiness when it involves the other party. In 2023, for example, Democrats generally would be happy if their neighbor put up a Biden 2024 sign (+44 in the 2023 survey) and unhappy if their neighbor put up a Trump 2024 sign (-47). The story for Republicans is similar: They'd generally be happy with a Trump 2024 sign (+44) and unhappy with a Biden 2024 sign (-39). Independents, on the other hand, are slightly more likely to be unhappy than happy with both Biden 2024 and Trump 2024 signs (-13 for both).
Across all four scenarios polled about, the biggest change in the past year involves MAGA supporters. While Democrats had -33 net happiness about working with someone who identifies as a MAGA supporter in 2023, their net happiness about the situation is now -68. Meanwhile, Republicans are now more happy to work with MAGA supporters than they were a year ago (+34 then; +60 now).
The 2023 survey found that Americans who identify as “strong” Democrats and Republicans feel closer to their party and more distant from the other party than those who identify as “not very strong” Democrats and Republicans. While strong Republicans have a net happiness of -32 — 32 percentage points more likely to be unhappy than happy — about their child marrying a Democrat, not very strong Republicans are much less unhappy about the situation, with a net happiness of only -2.
Similarly, strong Democrats (-51) would be more unhappy about Trump receiving an honorary degree from a nearby college than would not very strong Democrats (-32). Opinions about MAGA supporters also differ among people with strong and not very strong identification with parties. Strong Democrats (-37) and Republicans (+45) feel much more strongly about working closely with a colleague who identifies as a MAGA supporter than do not very strong Democrats (-25) and Republicans (+18).
— Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the results for the 2023 YouGov poll and the 2024 YouGov poll
Methodology: The February 2023 poll was conducted among 4,000 U.S. adult citizens on four separate surveys from February 7 - 10, February 9 - 13, February 10 - 14, and February 13 - 17 2023, with each survey taken by 1,000 U.S. adult citizens. The questions were re-asked in a poll of 1,000 U.S. adult citizens conducted from March 28 - April 4, 2024. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. For both polls, the sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample also was weighted by baseline party identification, which for the 2023 survey is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to March 15, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 28% Republican). For the 2024 survey it is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
