GALLUP : Black Support for Bush, GOP Remains Low

No change in the last year
July 19, 2005
by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- Republican Party leaders reached out to the black community last week with speeches by President Bush to a black group in Indiana and by party chairman Ken Mehlman to the NAACP convention in Milwaukee. The speeches were designed to convince blacks that minorities have made gains in home and small-business ownership during the Bush administration and to convince blacks that Republican policies on education, Social Security, and aid to religious charities would benefit them.
Results of the recent Gallup Minority Relations poll reveal that blacks continue to show very low levels of support for Bush and few identify politically as Republicans. In contrast, Hispanics are more likely to approve of Bush than are blacks, but on balance, Hispanics are more likely to disapprove than approve of him. Non-Hispanic whites continue to show higher levels of support for Bush and the Republican Party than do blacks or Hispanics, but are currently divided in their views of the job Bush is doing as president.
Bush Approval
In recent Gallup Polls, Bush's job approval ratings have ranked among the lowest of his presidency -- in the mid- to high-40% range, including a term-low 45% rating in late June. According to the June 6-25, 2005, Minority Relations poll, none of the major racial or ethnic groups in the United States show solid support for Bush. Most notably, blacks are highly unlikely to support Bush -- just 16% of blacks approve of him while 77% disapprove. Hispanics are more than twice as likely as blacks to approve of Bush (41%) and whites are nearly three times as likely (47%) to do so, but those groups are at least as likely to disapprove as to approve of Bush.

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