AEI Special Report Delegates at National Conventions: 1968 2008

Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg

In 1968, CBS News began polling the delegates to the national party conventions. Under the direction of the late Warren Mitofsky and Martin Plissner, CBS surveyed the delegates about their sex, age, profession, and other demographic variables and their attitudes on issues. In 1980, the AEI magazine Public Opinion brought the delegate data together in one place for the first time and Mitofsky and Plissner discussed how the delegates had changed. For most of the 150 year history of presidential conventions, national parties paid little attention to who are what the delegates were or how they got there. . . [S]tate parties usually sent delegates populated by their principal party and public offices, their most generous contributors, and lesser servants whose turn for reward had come. Presidential candidates, they said, might influence the choices of delegates but the normal practice was not to challenge party leadership. The 1968 convention was the last convention of the old order, after which party leaders determined to make the delegates more representative of their partys rank and file (while presidential candidates tried to make sure that their delegate slates in primary and caucus states would stay loyal to them). Below we update CBSs work once again with profiles of the delegates over a 40year period.

Characteristics of Democratic and Republican National Convention Delegates

Women Dem. Rep. 13% 16% 40 29 33 31 49 29 50 44* 52 37 48 43 53 36 48 35 50 43 49 32 Blacks Dem. Rep. 5% 2% 15 4 11 3 15 3 18 4* 21 3 16 5 17 3 19 4 18 6 23 2 Under age thirty Dem. Rep. 3% 4% 22 8 15 7 11 5 8 4* 4 4 4 6 2 4 3 7 4 7 3 Median age (years) Dem. Rep. 49yrs 49yrs 42 43 48 44 49 44* 51* 46 51 49 52 51 53 54 54 54

1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008

1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008

Lawyers Dem. Rep. 28% 22% 12 16 15 13 15 17^ 14^ 16 17 14 10 11 9 9 13 17 16

Teachers Dem. Rep. 8% 2% 11 12 4 15 4 16+ 6+ 14 5 9 2 7 2 13 8 -

Union official Dem. Rep. 4% 0% 5 6 0 5 0 6 -^ 6 0 6 5 College graduate Dem. Rep. 19% 21 21 27% 20 26 20 28* 21 26 20 23 34 25 31 24 29 26 31

Union member Dem. Rep. 16% 21 3% 27 4 25+ 4+ 23 4 26 35 4 31 4 25 3 24 5 Postgraduate Dem. Rep. 44% 34% 36 43 38 45 39 51 35* 52 42 52 45 39 49 46 53 44 55 50

1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008

Attending first convention Dem. Rep. 67% 66% 83 78 80 78 87 84 71 69^ 62 59 45 61 55 51 54 57 55 57 58 Protestant Dem. Rep. 42% 47 73% 47 72 53 71* 51 70 47 47 62 47 63 43 65 43 57 Liberal Dem. Rep. 40% 3% 46 2 50* 1* 39 1 48 1 Catholic Dem. Rep. 26% 34 18% 37 22 32 22* 30 24 30 30 25 30 27 32 26 26 30 Moderate Dem. Rep. 47% 45% 42 36 42* 35* 50 36 44 32

1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008

Jewish Dem. Rep. 9% 9 3% 8 3 9 2* 6 2 10 6 3 8 2 8 2 9 3 Conservative Dem. Rep. 8% 48% 6 58 5* 60* 5 60 5 63

1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992

1996 2000 2004 2008

43 36 41 43

0 1 1 0

48 56 52 50

27 34 33 26

5 5 3 3

70 63 63 72

Issue Attitudes by National Convention Delegates, Partisans, and Registered Voters

The next section of this report draws on the CBS delegate surveys and on CBS/New York Times polls. Delegates to the conventions are by virtue of their activism in politics the most pure in terms of their views on issues, and they differ often substantially from members of their own parties and from registered voters.

Abortion Q: What is your personal feeling about abortion: 1. It should be permitted in all cases; 2. It should be permitted, but subject to greater restrictions than it is now; 3. It should be permitted only in cases such as rape, incest and to save the womans life; or 4. It should only be permitted to save the womans life? All cases 61% 30 27 21 11 62 34 26 16 10 64 37 26 13 8 58 33 26 13 5 With greater Rape/incest/ restrictions save life 15% 13% 11 41 14 39 16 39 12 38 13 17 15 15 14 14 16 16 12 13 18 20 17 17 13 13 32 37 41 40 10 31 33 37 41 10 32 32 34 36 Only to save life 3% 13 14 18 27 2 12 15 21 23 2 12 17 25 23 2 11 18 27 31 Not permitted (vol.) 2% 3 4 4 2 4 3 1 2 5 10 6 2 4 6 6

1996

Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del.

2000

2004

2008

Q: Which of these comes closer to your view? 1. Abortion should be generally available to those who want it, or 2. Abortion should be available but under stricter limits, or 3. Abortion should not be permitted. Generally Available under Not available stricter limits permitted 1992 Dem. del. 78% 16% 3% Democrats 46 38 14 Reg. Voters 43 39 16 Republicans Rep. del. 2000 Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. 71 37 29 20 14 75 49 34 17 13 70 43 33 20 9 19 45 46 48 43 17 36 40 42 39 20 39 40 41 38 4 14 22 30 31 2 13 24 38 38 3 16 24 37 43

2004

2008

Role of Government Q: Which comes closer to your view: Government should do more to solve national problems; or Government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals? Government should do more Dem. del. 76% Democrats 46 Reg. Voters 35 Republicans 18 Rep. del. 4 Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats 73 44 33 21 4 79 48 Government is doing too many things 12% 47 59 78 91 8 44 57 74 88 12 45

1996

2000

2004

Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. 2008 Dem. del. Rep. del.

42 35 7 83 3

52 58 85 9 91

Q: Which comes closer to your view: Government should do more to promote traditional values; or Government should not favor one set of values over another? Do more on Should not favor traditional values Dem. del. 27% 66% Democrats 41 53 Reg. Voters 42 54 Republicans 44 51 Rep. del. 56 33 Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Rep. del. 20 36 43 55 44 15 26 40 61 55 12 48 66 53 50 41 44 78 71 57 36 34 79 43

1996

2000

2004

2008

The War in Iraq Q: Looking back, do you think the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, or should the U.S. have stayed out? Did the right thing 7% 21 46 78 96 2 14 37 70 80 Should have stayed out 86% 75 51 19 3 95 84 59 25 13

2004

Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del.

2008

Q: Which concerns you more right now that the government is failing to enact strong anti-terrorism laws, or that the government is enacting new anti-terrorism laws which excessively restrict the average persons civil liberties? Fail to enact 13% 35 44 59 40 11 60 Enact excessive laws 77% 53 43 25 15 79 17 Neither (vol.) 5% 3 5 8 34 3 14

2004

Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Rep. del.

2008

Trade Q. Which of the following statements comes closer to your opinion 1) Trade restrictions are necessary to protect domestic industries, or 2) Free trade must be allowed, even if domestic industries are hurt by foreign competition? Restrictions necessary 54% 65 60 56 31 50 54 57 60 27 67 68 69 71 32 Allow free trade 35% 27 31 34 53 37 31 30 30 61 23 26 27 25 53

1996

Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del. Dem. del. Democrats Reg. Voters Republicans Rep. del.

2000

2004

Sources: CBS surveys; CBS/New York Times survey; various New York Times articles and CBS News releases. AEI interns Min Yoo and Wylie Galvin helped prepare this document. All sources are available from Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg at AEI.