WaPo (“Study splits Americans into nine political groups. Where do you belong?“):
As voters approach the 2026 midterm and 2028 presidential election, it’s no secret that the country is highly polarized. But a new exhaustive survey of more than 10,000 Americans shows the daunting challenges Republicans and Democrats face in uniting disparate factions within their own parties.
Deep internal fissures are dividing Republicans over matters of style, like how eager people are to humiliate a political opponent, and substance, like whether abortion should be legal or carrying a gun in public should be commonplace.
Democrats are divided just as deeply over how to address transgender issues, crime and whether they like the “democratic socialist” label, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2026 “Political Typology” study.
Here is the breakdown:
According to the WaPo report, here’s how they break down the four right-leaning groups:
Pew’s analysis found four groups on the political right of roughly equal size: Faith First Conservatives at 12 percent of U.S. adults, the No Apologies Right at 9 percent, the Unconventional Right at 12 percent and the Pragmatic and Polite Right at 11 percent.
Guns, abortion and religion marked some of the biggest cleavages on the right. Majorities of Faith First Conservative and the No Apologies Right groups were very comfortable with people openly carrying guns in public, opposed legal abortion and said it’s important for U.S. culture to be based on Christian beliefs. Fewer than half of people in the Unconventional Right and Pragmatic and Polite Right hold any of these views.
A second big division is the tone of political rhetoric. The No Apologies Right is the only group in which a majority (53 percent) said they like it “when politicians you agree with humiliate political opponents,” compared with just 5 percent of the Pragmatic and Political Right and fewer than half of any other group in Pew’s analysis.
The Pragmatic and Polite Right held conservative views on economics and the role of government but more liberal views on race and international issues. For example, most said the legacy of slavery continues to affect the condition of Black people, and more than 6 in 10 had a favorable view of NATO. A slight majority opposed the Iran war, while majorities in the other three right-leaning groups supported it.
The Unconventional Right — a younger and less politically engaged group — held a hodgepodge of conservative and moderate views: They generally favored smaller government, but about half said government has a responsibility to provide health insurance. They were split on the legality of abortion and whether undocumented immigrants should be deported.
While hard to pin down ideologically, the Unconventional Right is significant because the group has swung sharply against President Donald Trump since he returned to office. While 78 percent approved of him in February 2025, a narrow 53 majority said this in April. Of all the Republican-leaning groups, they’re the least likely to say it “really matters” which party wins control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump is also unpopular among the Pragmatic and Polite Right at 36 percent approval, although he started at a lower 50 percent among this group. By contrast, 81 percent of Faith First Conservatives and 90 percent of the No Apologies Right approve of Trump’s job performance.
They also see four clusters on the left:
Pew identified four Democratic-leaning groups, ranging widely in size: The Order and Opportunity Left was the largest at 18 percent of the adult population, followed by the Left-Out Left at 12 percent, Loyal Liberals at 11 percent and Leftward Progressives representing the smallest group at 7 percent. All four of these groups lean toward the Democratic Party, but the poll reveals stark splits in how they view the party as well as their social and economic values.
In one of the biggest divisions, 92 percent of Leftward Progressives and 69 percent of Loyal Liberals are extremely or very comfortable with people using “they/them” pronouns, compared with fewer than half of other Democratic-leaning groups and about one-quarter of Americans overall. Leftward Progressives and Loyal Liberals also stand out in their lower concern with crime, for liking political leaders that identify as “democratic socialists” and saying it’s bad for the country that some people are billionaires.
Leftward Progressives stand out for their youth, frequent internet use and frustrations with the Democratic Party. While nearly all of those who voted supported Kamala Harris in 2024, barely 6 in 10 have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, and they’re more likely than any group to wish there were more political parties.
Loyal Liberals are the counterweight to progressives, holding progressive political values on many topics but also a strong allegiance to the Democratic Party.
The Order and Opportunity Left may be one of the most politically significant groups, leaning clearly toward Democrats but standing out as socially moderate. While those who voted in 2024 favored Harris over Trump by a more than 3 to 1 margin, they are more trusting of military and police than other left-leaning groups, and 6 in 10 favor a military presence at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Order and Opportunity left is racially diverse and has lower incomes than most other groups, but their views on the economy are nuanced. While most think large corporations make too much profit, they have more confidence in business leaders than other left-leaning groups. They also believe in economic mobility generally, saying Americans have at least “a fair amount” of control over their financial success.
Intrigued, I clicked through and took the survey myself. Here’s what it returned:
While “Unconventional Right” is potentially a reasonable label for my political views, I certainly don’t meet the description. At 60, few would call me “young.” And I’m a PhD political scientist who has run a political blog for 23 years; I’m hardly unengaged. Beyond that, I’m not sure whether I’m meaningfully “conservative,” at least if the current Republican Party orthodoxy defines that term, on immigration, race, or gender issues.
Then again, as I was taking the survey, as is often the case, I found many of the questions, or at least the choices of answers, rather frustrating. In many cases, there were false binaries. In others, my answer would have been “it depends,” but that was not among the options.
Regardless of the validity of the survey or the particular set of typologies, the larger point is inarguable: there’s considerably more viewpoint diversity in the country than can be represented by two political parties. Let alone a party of the progressive left and populist right, with essentially no issue overlap.
