Study shows Democratic voter enthusiasm surging

Primaries are sometimes driven by intra-party competition, but new numbers at least provide a rudimentary measure of how engaged voters are.
by Dante Chinni and Sally Bronston / Aug.05.2018 / 8:04 AM ET

WASHINGTON - As the 2018 primary season has rolled through the spring and summer, Democratic enthusiasm and turnout has been a dominant story in state after state, from New York to California. This week, the Pew Research Center put all those state-level stories into a national context with some eye-grabbing numbers.

The Pew analysis found that through June, 13.6 million people had voted in Democratic House primaries in 2018. The number was 7.4 million in 2014, the last midterm election. The 2018 figure represents an 84 percent increase over 2014.

The Republican House primary vote has climbed as well in 2018, but not by the same amount. Thus far about 10.7 million votes have been cast in GOP House primaries, compared to 8.6 million in 2014. That’s a bump of about 24 percent.



https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/2018-primaries-democratic-enthusiasm-surges-n897731