Americans Prefer Divided Government

While the majority of the 2020 election process may be over, a pivotal runoff election in Georgia will decide which party controls the last two open seats in the Senate. Republicans are favored to retain their control, with Democrats needing to capture both seats in order to have a 50-50 tie split by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. With Republicans retaining the Senate and Democrats in solid control of the House of Representatives and White House, the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s first term could be largely defined by a divided Congress. New survey data shows how a plurality of Americans actually favor a divided government over one where a single party controls all three bodies of government.

A new survey from The Economist and YouGov shows 41 percent of U.S. voters prefer a government that’s divided as opposed to unified. Trump voters were much more likely to prefer a divided government, with just 20 percent in favor of a unified one. 46 percent of Biden voters were in favor of a unified government, compared to just 25 percent in favor of a divided one.

Those in favor of a divided government are markedly higher than in the same survey from 2016, particularly for Trump voters. Just 39 percent of Trump voters were in favor of a divided government during the 2016 election – a 21 percentage point difference from 2020. Those who voted for Clinton and Biden were relatively unchanged, with 27 percent in favor of a divided government in 2016 compared to 25 percent in 2020.