44% of Democrats Have Had Enough of 2016 Race

With the Iowa caucus less than a month away, most voters say they’re ready and eager for the 2016 presidential contest. But Republicans are much more enthusiastic about the year to come than Democrats and unaffiliated voters are.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58% of Likely U.S. Voters are looking forward to the presidential race. Thirty-seven percent (37%) have had enough of the race already even though the first vote has yet to be cast. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Seventy-one percent (71%) of Republicans are looking forward to the contest; only 25% are ready for it to be over. Among Democrats, however, 50% are looking forward to the race, but nearly as many (44%) have had enough. Unaffiliated voters share those views by a similar 53% to 41% margin.

Seventy-nine percent (79%) of all voters say they have watched at least some of the presidential debates this year. Nineteen percent (19%) have not.

Among voters who watched the debates, 70% tuned into the debates of both major political parties. Twenty-five percent (25%) watched only the Republican hopefuls, but just five percent (5%) only watched the Democratic candidates debate.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on December 30, 2015 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Not that voters are satisfied with what they have seen so far. Just 35% believe the Republican debates have done a good job helping voters really learn about the candidates, while 40% feel that way about the debates among Democrats.

Republicans have held five candidate debates so far and have two more scheduled this month. The Democratic candidates have debated three times and are set to debate again later in January.

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans have watched at least some of the debates, compared to 78% of Democrats and 72% of unaffiliateds. Democratic and unaffiliated voters are more likely than Republicans to say they have watched both parties’ debates.

Forty-one percent (41%) of GOP voters only have watched the Republican debates versus just 11% of Democrats who have only tuned into their own party’s debates. Among unaffiliated voters, 19% watched the GOP candidates only, while one percent (1%) watched the Democrats only.

Men are looking forward to the presidential contest a lot more than women are. Those 40 and over are more enthusiastic than younger voters are.

Sixty percent (60%) of whites are looking forward to the race, compared to 49% of blacks and 53% of other minority voters. Whites are also slightly more likely to have watched at least some of the debates.

In late July just before the first debates, 43% of Republicans said pre-primary debates are Very Important in determining how they will vote in their state party primary. That compared to 34% of Democrats and 31% of unaffiliated voters.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump remain the leaders in the Democratic and Republican races respectively. They remain all tied up in a hypothetical 2016 matchup.

Clinton vowed last month to unleash her husband, former President Bill Clinton, on the campaign trail on her behalf in January, but that’s looking less like a good idea. 

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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