PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 27 (UPI) -- The dominant conservative bloc in the U.S. Republican electorate is populated by older and more religious voters, polls indicate.
Daily tracking polls reported by Gallup this year find 18 percent of Republicans and allied independents describing their political views as very conservative, while 53 percent are conservative and 29 percent are moderate or liberal.
While 62 percent of core Republicans called themselves conservative in 2000, the figure has been 70 percent or higher each year since 2008.
Conservative Republicans are much more likely than moderates to say religion is very important in their lives. Those who are very conservative are nearly twice as likely as moderates or liberals to attend religious services weekly -- 61 versus 32 percent.
Forty-three percent of very conservative Republicans and 42 percent of conservatives are 55 or older, compared with 34 percent of moderates or liberals. Only 16 percent of very conservative Republicans are aged 18 to 34, compared with 27 percent of moderates or liberals.
The results are based on telephone interviews from Jan. 2 through Sept. 23 with a random sample of 262,075 adults and a margin of error of less than 1 percent.
