Poll: Primary Battle Has Hurt GOP’s Image Among Young, Non-Whites
By David Lauter
March 15, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
Reporting from Washington—
The Republican presidential primary campaign so far hasn’t produced a nominee, but it has had one clear outcome — worsening the GOP’s image among the young, the better-educated and the non-white.
That finding, from the Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday, could be a serious handicap for the party in elections this fall and in years to come, said Pew’s director, Andrew Kohut.
“The Republicans really are the party of white people, and especially older white people,” Kohut told reporters as the poll was released. “They’ve done nothing in this campaign to make themselves be more favorably viewed” among other parts of the electorate.
That verdict won’t come as a surprise to many Republican strategists. Some, including Karl Rove, the architect of George W. Bush’s electoral victories, have been arguing for years that the party needs to find ways to reach out to demographic groups, particularly Latinos, who are increasing as a percentage of the population.