Gallup: Record share of Americans prefer one party control White House, Congress

Oct. 2 (UPI) — A record plurality of Americans, but not a majority, believe it’s best for the United States to have a president and both houses of Congress from the same political party, a Gallup poll showed Friday.

The survey, part of Gallup’s annual Governance survey, shows that 41% of U.S. adults said it’s better to have the same party control all three facets.

Another 23% said they would rather divided party rule, a president from one party and a Congress from another. Thirty-two percent said they had no preference.

Presently, Republicans hold the White House and the Senate, while Democrats control the House. When President Donald Trump took office in 2017, all three were held by the Republican Party.

“The prior high in preferences for one-party government occurred in 2012 [38%] when incumbent President Barack Obama was running for a second term,” Gallup wrote.

“One year later, in the midst of a federal government shutdown tied to a dispute over funding the Affordable Care Act, a record-low 25% favored one-party government, with 38% saying it made no difference which parties held the White House and Congress.”

Gallup saw an average of 36% who prefer one-party rule, over the past five years — while 24% favored the parties split control. The 12-point difference had been as close as three points between 2002 and 2014.

In Friday’s poll, 52% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats said they prefer one-party rule. Thirty-one percent of independents feel the same.

“Americans’preferences for one-party or divided government appear to be rooted in the desire to maximize their party’s power more than philosophical considerations about what leads to better political outcomes,” Gallup added.

“The poll was conducted before [Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader] Ginsburg’s death, so it is unclear whether Americans are any more, or less, likely to favor one-party or divided government today,” the polling service said.

Gallup polled more than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide for the survey earlier this month, which has a margin of error of 4 points.