33%
29%
31%
33%
33%
28%
37%
33%
31
26%
43
48
40
32
THE REPUBLICAN
REPVUOTES IF
BLIC ONLY
AN S THE
UPPO
RTS.
..
SU INIT
I
WE A PPOR AL
S
T
A
H P O SA
%
MA IGH- NS B ULT
G A CA P A N
Z
BA INES ACITY
%
C K BA
GR N
CH OUN
%
EC D
KS
By EMILY SWANSON
NOTE: Undecided voters and
those who abstained were not
included in this graphic.
47
52%
Checks
...
THE DEMOCRAT
HuffPost and its polling partner YouGov surveyed a sample
of Americans who were randomly assigned to see two sets
of questions. Respondents first answered a “generic ballot”
question asking which party’s candidate he or she would vote
for in the district he or she lives in. The next questions asked
the respondent to imagine an election in which one candidate
supported and one opposed three gun proposals: Universal
background checks, a high-capacity magazines ban and an
assault weapons ban. For one set of respondents, only the
Democrat supported each proposal, while for the other set it was
the Republican supported each one. The results show that being
the only candidate to support background checks would be
advantageous for either party’s candidate. For a high-capacity
magazines or assault weapons ban, if the Democrat didBackground
not
Checks
support those proposals and his opponent did, the Democrat
saw a dramatic loss of support. The Republican who did support
the proposals gained in both cases, leading to an evenly matched
race when the Democrat initially held a sizeable lead. Background
SU INIT
I
WE A PPOR AL
H A P O S SA T
%
MA IGH- NS B ULT
G A CA P A N
Z
BA INES ACITY
%
C K BA
GR N
CH OUN
%
EC D
KS
POLLING
AMERICA
V
DEMOTES IF
OCRA ONLY
T SU THE
PPOR
TS