Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Sofia Sanchez University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

According to a new poll released Wednesday from Quinnipiac University, 13 percent of voters consider themselves members of the Tea Party movement.

“Only 13 percent of American voters say they are part of the Tea Party Movement...which is mostly made up of those who consider themselves as Republicans,” says Peter Brown, Assistant Director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

The poll notes that 74 percent of those who consider themselves within the movement identify as Republicans.

The 13 percent could be an electoral dream for the Republicans if the Republican party decides to scoop the Tea Party movement under their tent come November.

However, if the Tea Partiers are not energized to support a Republican candidate, they could hurt the GOP by putting a Tea Party candidate in the mix, and therefore split the conservative vote in favor of Democrats.

Brown outlined further findings on the makeup of the movement, such as gender and socio-economic data.

“It’s not a regional movement as such, they are pretty representative of the country,” said Brown. “On some issues they are not representative of the country on what they think, their politics and voting behavior.”

The poll showed that the majority of the Tea Party movement is made up of women, whites, Republicans and those who voted for John McCain during the 2008 presidential election. They are also strong supporters of Sarah Palin.

Also, only 4 percent of voters making $250,000 per year consider themselves a part of the movement and 7 percent in the tea party movement are African-American.

“They are less educated but are more interested in politics than the average Joe and Jane Six-Pack and are not in a traditional sense swing voters,” said Brown.

Quinnipiac University Poll will be releasing a post Health Care bill poll later this week.