American Voters Are Center Right

Illustration from causes.com

American voters self-identified their ideology in the annual Gallup Poll as 37% conservative, 34% moderate and only 25% liberal. Overall they are moderate to slightly more conservative.

Parties Too Extreme
Both parties are more ideologically extreme than voters at large. Democrats are now 55 percent liberal with a tiny conservative wing of 9% and a long declining moderate block of 34%. Democrats shed most of their considerable moderate and conservative voters in the 1990’s. Republicans are 77% conservative identifiers. The party has been over 60 percent conservative since the 1990’s. There are only small moderate (18%) and liberal (4%) wings.

Democrats Must Move to Middle
In competitive states and congressional districts, Democrats are too liberal for voters’ preferences and Republicans too conservative. Hence, the endless close competition. But Democrats in particular need to dampen their most liberal agendas and constituents to appeal to the more moderate, broader electorate. Fortunately, recent Gallup polling shows that in light of the last election “a plurality of Democrats would like their party to become more moderate” (an 11 point increase since 2021).

Source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/656636/democrats-favor-party-moderation-past.aspx