Voters who identify as independents are rarely actually independent -- and the ones who are tend to not care about politics, according to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center.
Independents are often seen as the best possibility for potential candidates to pick up votes outside their bases, but most independents actually"lean" toward one party or another, according to the analysis. Less than 10% of the population say they truly have no partisan lean. In general, the number of Americans who consider themselves independents increased from 33% in 1994 to 38% in 2018.
Independents, regardless of which party they lean toward, are less likely to vote than those affiliated with either party. In a Pew poll last fall, strong partisans were more likely to report that they were registered to vote and participated in the midterm elections, including 59% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans. But only about half of Democratic-leaning independents and Republican-leaning independents said they voted. A third of true independents reported voting in the midterm elections.
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