Poll: Republicans More Likely Than Democrats to Have Close Friend in Other Party

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they have a close friend from the other side of the aisle, an NBC News poll found.

The survey found that, despite a polarized political climate, most voters say they have a close friend who belongs to a different political party than they do. Even so, Democrats (64 percent) are less likely to be close friends with a Republican, while 82 percent of Republicans say they have at least one close friend who is a Democrat — an 18-point divide.

The difference is most stark among voters who report being more ideological and more loyal to their political party, the survey found. Conversely, voters who say they are more moderate are more likely to report having a close friend in the opposite party. 

“…[M]oderate Democrats (78 percent) were 21 points more likely to say they have a close friend who is a Republican than liberal Democrats (57 percent),” NBC News wrote of the poll. 

Poll respondents who identify as moderate Republicans are also more likely to say they have a close Democrat friend than those who identify as conservative Republicans, 87 percent to 79 percent.

Seventy-seven percent of voters who self-identify as “core” GOP supporters say they have a close Democrat friend, as do 90 percent of “soft” Republican voters, the poll found. Similarly, 57 percent of “core” Democrat voters and 73 percent of “soft” Democrats say they have a close Republican friend.

“Other factors, like age, gender and college education, did not have notably large effects on how likely people were to say they had a cross-partisan friendship,” according to the report. 

Religion did impact poll results, per the report. Republican voters who attend religious services more often were slightly less likely to have a close friend who is a Democrat. The opposite is found with religious Democrats: Democrats who frequently attend religious services were approximately ten points more likely to have a friend who votes red, the survey found. 

The poll was conducted with 1,000 registered voters between Oct. 24-28, and the margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points. 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.