Conservative and moderate Republicans may disagree on a game plan for their Party moving forward, but they agree on one thing: the Grand Ol’ Party is screwed up.
According to a new Pew Research poll, 67% of Republicans believe their Party needs to address “major issues.”
The rift inside the Party is evident in the poll as 54% of Republicans believe the Party needs to move in a more conservative direction, while 40% believe the GOP needs to move to the left.
Paul Ryan appears to have benefited from his turn on the national stage as Mitt Romney’s VP candidate. Ryan leads the potential 2016 GOP presidential primary field with a 65% favorability rating among Republicans.
Sen. Rand Paul’s recent momentum that began with his 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor in March has translated into a 55% favorability rating among Republicans surveyed in the Pew poll.
Other notable numbers include New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s high negatives (30%, the highest in the poll), and the fact that Sen. Ted Cruz remains largely unknown nationally. 53% of Republicans polled by Pew had “no opinion” of Cruz.
The Tea Party influence on the Republican Party remains huge, and is magnified by the fact that Tea Partiers are far more likely to vote in Republican primaries than more moderate Republicans.
So what do you think? Will the GOP right the ship in time to hold their House majority and win the Senate majority in 2014, and take back the White House in 2016?
(H/T Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg, AEI)
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