Free Republic

Club for Growth Action is claiming it took down Donald Trump in Iowa, and that it plans to do it again in South Carolina. The group, which has been consistently attacking Trump's conservative credentials for months, plans to hit the real estate mogul with a $1.5 million ad buy in the state that will start running Saturday on TV and digital platforms.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the woman whom the largest percentage of Americans admired most in 2015, according to a Gallup poll. That marks a record 20 years that she has garnered that honor, including the last 14 years in a row. Americans named President Barack Obama their most admired man. This is the eighth time that Obama has taken that honor. In the history of Gallup's most-admired surveys, no one has appeared in the Top Ten more often than the Rev. Billy Graham, who has enjoyed that distinction 59 times. ...

More Americans favor than oppose a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are living in the United States illegally, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. While most Republicans oppose such a path to citizenship, it doesn't seem to be a dealbreaker issue for them. ...

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s Quinnipiac poll comes a survey from the Des Moines Register that confirms Ben Carson is now the leading Republican candidate in Iowa, with Donald Trump slipping into second place, and Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 96% nudging ahead of Senator Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 80% for third. The Des Moines Register’s results are very similar to Quinnipiac: Carson 28, Trump 19, Cruz 10, Rubio 9. That’s a 10 point jump for Carson since the last poll in August, and a four-point slide for Trump. The second tier is a tie for fifth place, with...

Donald J. Trump may have lost his grip on Iowa, as the second poll in two days shows the billionaire Republican presidential candidate trailing Ben Carson in the state that kicks off the nominating process. A new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll shows Mr. Carson with support of 28 percent of the likely participants in Iowa’s Republican caucuses, with Mr. Trump at 19 percent. In August, Mr. Trump was leading Mr. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, by a margin of 23 to 18. The poll has a margin of error of five percentage points. Mr. Trump frequently parades his strong poll...

Sixty-three percent of registered voters oppose cutting off federal funds to Planned Parenthood, according to a new poll commissioned by the organization. The poll, conducted by the Democratic firm Hart Research Associates, finds that along with 63 percent of voters overall who oppose defunding Planned Parenthood, 68 percent of independents also oppose the move. The poll finds that a “bare majority” of 53 percent of Republicans favor defunding, while 34 percent oppose the move. The survey finds that voters are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports funding Planned Parenthood over one calling to end funding, by a...

More than 60 percent of Americans back a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living here illegally — winning support from majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents, according to a sweeping new poll to be released Tuesday. When it comes to undocumented immigrants, 62 percent of Americans believe they should be allowed to gain citizenship if they meet certain requirements, while 17 percent would support green cards but not citizenship for them. Meanwhile, 19 percent think the undocumented immigrants should be deported. Split down by party, 70 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of political independents and 51 percent of Republicans said...

In 2009, the gap between the share of Republicans and Democrats who believed in evolution was just 10 percentage points, 54 percent and 64 percent, respectively. Last year, that gap widened to a whopping 24 points because as the percentage of Democrats who believed in evolution inched up to 67 percent, the percentage of Republicans believing so plummeted to 43 percent. Now, more Republicans believe that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time” than believe in evolution. This sad news comes via a survey released this week by the Pew Research...

She’s reportedly waiting until 2014 before she starts thinking about 2016, but Hillary Clinton, according to one national poll, is your frontrunner for the White House — by a wide margin.And Elizabeth Warren is your fastest rising star.The former secretary of state and first lady dominated last week’s new Quinnipiac University survey, which showed her gobbling up 61 percent of support and beating any Republican challenger — be it New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul or Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — by anywhere from 13 to 23 points.

Americans support a wide range of new measures to combat gun violence, including majority support for background checks, an assault weapons ban, and placing armed police in schools according to a pair of new polls released Monday. The surveys, preformed by Pew Research and the Washington Post/ABC News, both find that Americans generally support a broad array of efforts in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting that left 20 children and 6 school employees dead. Among the most popular proposal in either survey was closing the so-called "gun show" loophole, which allows the private sale of guns...

A new poll released on the eve of Rick Santorum’s first campaign visit to Alabama shows the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania leading in the state Republican Party presidential primary. The statewide poll conducted by Alabama State University’s Center for Leadership and Public Policy showed 22.7 percent of likely Republican voters supported Santorum, who is scheduled to make campaign appearances Thursday in Huntsville and Mobile. Former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney trailed Santorum with 18.7 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House from neighboring Georgia, with 13.8 percent. The telephone poll of 470 likely GOP voters showed...

Businessman Herman Cain has risen to the top of a national poll of Republican primary voters, upending the GOP field yet again this cycle. Cain has the support of 30 percent of Republicans in the Public Policy Polling survey, trailed by Mitt Romney at 22 percent, Newt Gingrich at 15 percent, and Rick Perry at 14 percent. Cain is also the second choice of 24 percent of those polled — the highest of any candidate. In a two-person race, Romney would lead Perry 48-38, Cain would lead Romney 48-36, and Cain would destroy Perry 55-27. The poll was conducted before...

A new poll shows California voters strongly support proposals to allow the Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans to expire -- and overwhelmingly favor policies that allow the middle class to keep more of their earnings instead. The statewide poll was taken by the Democratic polling firm of Greenberg Quinlan and Rosner for the SEIU. Hardly non-partisan, but Greenberg is well-respected; and the poll has good news for Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer -- in the middle of a tough re-election battle with Republican Carly Fiorina -- as she backs an end the tax cuts to the rich. The...

I was just called by Voter Roll Call about the upcoming elections. The questions ONLY pertained to corporations and their influence in elections. It was an automated voice and they asked questions with corresponding numbers for the answer. 1 Are you a registered voter? 2 How likely are you to vote? 3 Do corporations have too much influence in elections? 4 Do lobbyists have too much influence in Washington? 5 Which statement is true? a)I am more likely to vote for someone that listens to lobbyists? b) I am more likely to vote for someone that doesn't listen to lobbyists....

A new poll shows Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic challenger Bill White are tied in the race for Texas governor.Public Policy Polling polled the race 4 months ago, in that poll, former Houston Mayor Bill White was trailing behind Perry 48-42. The new poll now shows that White is tied with Perry 43-43.According to the poll only 36% of voters in the state like the job that Perry is doing while 49% disapprove.White is better known and like than most challengers, 37% of voters have a favorable opinion of him, 25% unfavorable.In most states, in this Republican election year, not...

The Polling Contradiction In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the majority of Americans are opposed to President Obama's health-care reform plan—until they learn the details. Plus, a look at very unhappy mood of the electorate. By Sarah Kliff Feb 19, 2010 As Democrats struggle to salvage health-care-reform legislation, a new NEWSWEEK Poll shows that while a majority of Americans say they oppose Obama's plan, a majority actually support the key features of the legislation. The findings support the notion that Democrats have not done a good job of selling the package and that opponents have been successful in framing the debate....

I received this e-mail from a Massachusetts resident and businesswoman (and I verified her identity through publicly available sources), regarding a phone call she received last night: I got an odd call last night that presented as a survey on the Kennedy election. I was willing to participate in the survey but was left with a bad feeling when it was over. Today I am hoping to let a few people know. I saw your blog. They identified themselves as McGrath [sic - see below] from Denver but I was unable to find anything on Google. The questions were obnoxious;...

Survey finds likely voters connect reducing global warming and promoting clean energy to new American jobs UTICA, New York - A majority of likely voters - 71% - favors the American Clean Energy and Security Act recently passed by the House of Representatives, and two-thirds (67%) believe Congress is either doing the right amount (22%) or should be doing more (45%) to address global warming, new Zogby International telephone poll shows.  Just 28% believe that Congress is doing too much.Respondents were read the following statement regarding the American Clean Energy and Security Act: "The House of Representatives recently passed the...

Just read an AP report: the percentage of Americans that think the country is on the right track rose to 48% in March as compared to 40% in February. In light of the unemployment rising, the debacle in foreign affairs etc, I found it unlikely. So I looked into the details of the poll. 73% of the Democrats polled thought we were on the right track 17% of Independents 10% of Republicans That made it even more suspicious as to how those numbers could result in a 48% overall right track vote. So digging deeper, it turns out 36% of...

Two states have legalized same-sex marriage in the past two weeks, but when it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are still a minority. That minority is on an upward trajectory though and Scott Barclay, political scientist at the State University of New York at Albany, explains why: newspapers. In the last two weeks, two states have legalized same-sex marriage. First, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Then Vermont became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through its legislature. When it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are...