A new survey shows how economic policy divides the GOP and unites Democrats

Lee Drutman was cited in Vox for his research on voters' political and economic beliefs.

Rank-and-file Democrats of all income levels are largely united around big economic policy themes, a new study shows. The Republican Party, by contrast, features a significant internal division that basically tracks income lines, with lower-income Republicans being much more moderate on a range of economics-related issues.

The study, released Tuesday by the Democracy Fund’s Voter Study Group, was authored by Lee Drutman, Vanessa Williamson, and Felicia Wong.

They gauged support for a few different progressive economic policy ideas and then compared the views of low-income voters (with less than $40,000 per year in household income) to more comfortable ones (with more than $80,000 per year in household income). For Democrats, the more affluent voters were generally more left-wing — probably because they are better-educated and thus generally more ideological — but the difference is small.