Democrats appear to have grown significantly warier about federal power since a Republican president took the White House, a new survey finds, while Republicans may have softened in their backing for states’ rights.
Last July, a Gallup survey found that Republicans favored concentrating power in the states, rather than the federal government, by a 61-point margin, while Democrats preferred stronger federal power by a 30-point edge.
“If presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton loses this year’s presidential election, Democrats could find themselves more amenable to concentration of power in state governments,” Gallup’s Justin McCarthy noted at the time. “Likewise, Republicans could become more open to federal power if a Republican again occupies the White House. Still, states’ rights have long been a rallying cry of the GOP, and that seems unlikely to change as a result of the coming presidential election.”
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