More Americans have now heard of the right-wing Koch Brothers than the left-wing George Soros, though Soros remains the more disliked
Billionaire brothers David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch have only in recent years become widely known for their donations to political causes. But as new research from YouGov shows, more Americans have now heard of them than George Soros, another billionaire long known for his activism.
55% of Americans report having heard of the Koch brothers while 51% have heard of Soros. While significant percentages have heard of both, they still rank towards the middle in public awareness among politically active billionaires. 95% of Americans, for example, have heard of Donald Trump or Bill Gates.
Interestingly, while roughly equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats have heard of the Koch Brothers, this is not the case with George Soros. 65% of Republicans have heard of him, while only 37% of Democrats.
In terms of opinion, Americans overall have a more negative of George Soros than the Koch Brothers, though for both Soros and the Koch Brothers more Americans have a negative opinion than a positive opinion.
As may be expected, opinion of Soros and the Koch Brothers is highly polarized, with more Democrats having a positive impression of Soros and a negative of Koch and more Republicans having a positive impression of the Koch and a negative impression of Soros.
That said Republican opinion is far more strongly against Soros than Democratic opinion is for him, with 44% of Republicans having a strongly unfavorable impression and only 9% of Democrats having a very favorable impression.
