37 Percent of Democrats in College Say They Refuse to be Friends with a Republican Voter

A man with a track backpack walks across the BYU campus in autumn.
by Angela Morabito

 

New polling from Axios and Generation Lab shows that Democrat college students are far more likely than their Republican classmates to refuse to date, work for, or even be friends with someone who voted for the other party’s presidential candidate.

71 percent of Democrats in college said they would not go on a date with someone who voted for the GOP presidential candidate. 41 percent would not shop at a business owned by the same. 37 percent would not be friends with someone who voted for that candidate, and 30 percent would not work for that person.

Republicans in college were far more tolerant of those with differing views. Though 31 percent said they would not go on a date with someone who voted for the opposing presidential candidate, only 7 percent said they would not work for or support a business owned by the same. 5 percent of Republicans in college said they would not be friends with someone who voted for the Democratic presidential ticket.

The survey shows that, when it comes to dating, Independents are slightly more open-minded than Republicans. 71 percent of Independents said they would “definitely” or “probably” date across the aisle, compared to 69 percent of Republicans. Only 29 percent of Democrats said the same.

Women are less willing to date across the aisle than men. 67 percent of men say they would “definitely” or “probably” go on a date with someone who voted for the opposing presidential candidate, compared to only 41 percent of women.

The biases extend to employer relationships and friendships as well. Democrats surveyed were more than 7 times as likely as their Republican peers to refuse to be friends with someone who voted for the other party’s presidential candidate. Additionally, were more than three times as likely that Republicans to say they would refuse to work for an opposing voter.

Older generations of Democrats have expressed concern about the intolerance of the party’s young adults. In October, Politico noted that “the highly-educated young liberals who serve as the standard-bearers of the party’s platform are leading Democrats down a path toward political obscurity.”

The existing “quad-to-campaign pipelines” could present “a real political risk for Democrats” because colleges are creating a new generation of Democratic staffers who are significantly more liberal than the average voter.

The College Democrats of America, a national organization that oversees College Democrats chapters on campuses, has also been plagued by infighting.

Politico reports that accusations of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia among its ranks led the Democratic National Committee to consider possibly disassociating from the collegiate group altogether.

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Angela Morabito is a Higher Education Fellow and Spokeswoman for Campus Reform. She is the former Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, where she went head-to-head with the Left, the media, and the teachers’ unions on behalf of the Trump administration and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. In that role, she communicated to the press and the American public on all facets of education policy, with emphasis on academic freedom, students’ civil rights, and the student loan debt spiral. Before her appointment as Press Secretary, Angela worked in public affairs, digital media, and higher education administration. She has authored opinion pieces for the Washington Examiner and The Federalist. Red Alert Politics named her to the “30 Under 30” conservatives to watch in 2016. Angela graduated cum laude from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and later earned a Master’s degree, also from Georgetown, with particular focus on politics, culture, media, and ethics.
 

 

 

 

 


Appeared at and reprinted from campusreform.org

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