{"id":16653,"date":"2011-12-22T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/congress-the-parties-and-the-anti-incumbent-mood\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:42:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:42:36","slug":"congress-the-parties-and-the-anti-incumbent-mood","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2011\/12\/22\/congress-the-parties-and-the-anti-incumbent-mood\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress, the Parties, and the Anti-Incumbent Mood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As voters look toward the 2012 congressional elections, anti-incumbent sentiment is running at or near record highs. Just 20% of voters say they would like to see most members of Congress reelected in the next congressional election. Two-thirds (67%) think most members of Congress should be replaced. This figure exceeds \u2013 by double digits \u2013 previous highs set in 1994, 2006 and 2010. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As is generally the case, voters are more positive about their own congressional representative than about Congress at large. Half (50%) of those polled say they would like to see their own representative reelected while 33% say their representative should not be reelected. Still, this figure is roughly equal to the level of anti-incumbent sentiment in 2010, when 58 incumbents lost reelection bids \u2013 the most since 1948.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The level of anti-incumbent sentiment among Republican voters is particularly notable. Despite having won a majority in the House of Representatives last year, most Republicans continue to favor a sweeping overhaul of congressional membership. Fully 70% say that most members should be replaced. This finding stands in stark contrast to how members of the party with a House majority have felt in recent elections. Republicans in 2006, and Democrats in 2008 and 2010, favored reelecting most, with only a small share advocating the sweeping overhaul that Republicans do today. In those years, one party controlled both the House and Senate, which is not the case today.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The level of anti-incumbent sentiment among independents is extensive. For the first time on record, more than seven in ten independents (73%) say that most members of Congress should not be reelected. Just 37% of independent voters would like to see their representative reelected to Congress while 43% would not. By contrast, a majority of Republicans (57%) and Democrats (60%) say they would like to see their member of Congress reelected. <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/12\/15\/section-1-congress-the-parties-and-the-anti-incumbent-mood\/?src=prc-number\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One-third of voters say their own representative in Congress should not be re-elected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"bylines":[791],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"class_list":["post-16653","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-pew-research-center-staff","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short 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