UVA Center for Politics looks at ‘negative partisanship’

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - The University of Virginia Center for Politics is researching why so many Republicans are loyal to Donald Trump.

The Center says some of this support for the former president comes down to negative partisanship, which means voters dislike the opposing side more than their own.

“On the Republican side, I do think that there is a lot of personal loyalty to Trump,” Kyle Kondik with Center for Politics said Wednesday, August 23. “Whereas the Democratic side, I think the sort of personal loyalty to Biden is probably less.”

Kondik says the result of negative partisanship has people voting for a candidate even if they don’t actually support that person.

“People are generally positive to their own presidential nominee, but they’re really very hostile to the other party’s nominee in a way that they weren’t a generation or two ago,” Kondik said.

Trump is head-to-head with President Joe Biden in some polls. The Center’s own pole shows only a 0.5% difference in votes between the two.

“I think there are a lot of Republicans who are just going to naturally take Trump’s side,” Kondik said.

Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.

Copyright 2023 WVIR. All rights reserved.