Elon Musk: Switching From ‘D’ to ‘R’ ‘as Many Independents Have Done
Elon Musk, CEO and chief engineer at SpaceX, arrives for the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty)
By Charles Kim | Saturday, 21 May 2022 11:40 AM
Billionaire Elon Musk said his switch from centrist Democrat to centrist Republican is not uncommon among independent voters.
“I’ve just switched from moderate D to moderate R, as I think many independent voters have done,” he said in the tweet Friday. “We will know the magnitude of this trend in November. I think it’s big.”
Musk’s decision may align with a larger trend that likely makes Democrats nervous as midterm elections loom.
“In the past I voted Democrat because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican,” Musk said in a tweet Wednesday. “Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.”
According to Gallup polls conducted among 12,000 adults throughout 2021, Democrats saw their party identification drop from 49% in the year’s first quarter to 42% in the year’s final quarter, compared to a 7% rise in the number of voters identifying as Republican during the same time frame.
The shift in political party preference was dramatic over the course of the year: from 9 percentage points for Democrats in the first quarter to 5 percentage points for Republicans in the fourth quarter. Both the Democrats’ 9-point advantage and the Republicans’ 5-point advantage were among the largest measured for either party in any quarter since 1991, when Gallup began measuring party identification and leaning.
The apparent trend is continuing and appears to be closely tied to President Joe Biden’s plummeting job approval rating, which is now at the lowest point in his presidency at just 39%, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll published Friday.
Additionally, just 2 in 10 adults believe the country is on the right track or that the economy is good, down from just 3 in 10 a month ago.
Even among Democrats, Biden is just holding steady with a 73% approval rating within his own party, down from the start of his administration, while the number within the party believing the country is heading in the right direction is just 1 in 3 at 33%, down from 49% in April.
The numbers do not bode well for Democrats now facing significant current and historical headwinds to keep the majority in the House and a split Senate.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
