Public Employee Union Members More Hostile to Republicans than Private Sector Union Workers
Members of public employee unions prefer Democrats over Republicans on the Generic Congressional Ballot by a 28-percentage-point margin. Among private sector union members, the gap is half that size.
A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 50% of public sector union members are ready to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate from their district, while just 22% would vote for a Republican. Ten percent (10%) would prefer a third party option, and 18% are not sure at this time.
Among private sector union members, 47% would vote for a Democrat and 34% for a Republican. Seven percent (7%) would prefer a third party candidate, and 11% are undecided.
That’s partly a function of partisan identification. Among public sector union members, 48% are Democrats, and just 17% claim affiliation with the GOP. Among private sector union members, the numbers are 42% for the Democrats and 30% for the GOP.
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The survey of 432 Likely U.S. Voters who are union members was conducted from February 28-March 13, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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