Target Point

Tea Party Political Figures

The findings below are taken from our exit poll of attendees of the Tax Day Tea Party in Washington DC.  Full data and analysis can be found here, and you can take our quiz here to see how you measure up to the Tea Party.

Sarah Palin and Ron Paul are two of the most popular politicians among the Tax Day Tea Party, but for two very different reasons.  

• Overall, Palin and Paul each capture the top spots when asked what politician today best exemplifies the goals of the Tea Party movement with 15% and 12% respectively.  We see nearly the same thing on the forced choice 2012 presidential ballot where Palin tops the list with 15% of the vote and Paul comes in second with 14%.  Mitt Romney is the only other person to break into double digits on the presidential ballot with 13%.

• Palin, Paul and Romney were also each popular choices when respondents were asked if they would consider supporting each candidate in 2012, garnering Yes’s from 44%, 38% and 42% of the crowd, respectively.  Other top performers here were Gingrich, who tied Palin with 44% saying yes, they would consider supporting him; Senator Jim DeMint with 39%, Mike Huckabee with 36% and Tim Pawlenty at 33%.

• Sarah Palin and Ron Paul represent the dueling factions of the Tea Party.  Palin consistently performs better among the “traditional values” crowd, including her first place rank on the support question with 52% saying Yes, I would support her. Paul, on the other hand, performs best among those that say “government should not promote any particular values:”  he ranks first on the support measure with 41%.  

• Moreover, 48% of Palin voters attend religious services weekly versus only 25% of Paul voters; 90% of Palin voters are 4’s or 5’s in their anger over “the moral direction of the country”, versus 66% of Paul voters, and 59% of Palin voters are 4’s or 5’s in their anger over same sex marriage, versus 34% of Paul voters.

• However, while Paul does not perform well among traditional values promoters, Palin does perform decently among the more libertarian group, indicating some potential crossover appeal between the two camps of the Tea Party.  Beyond that, Gingrich and Romney perform adequately enough in both groups that they too have potential to be a bridge between the libertarian and socially conservative sects of the Tea Party.

• Barack Obama is only open to consideration by 11% of Tea Party attendees, but 2/3 of respondents strongly agreed that “Barack Obama is pursuing a socialist agenda.”