A new Gallup report finds that 79% of Tea Party supporters consider themselves Republicans and 62% consider themselves conservative Republicans. As Gallup's Frank Newport writes: "Their similar ideological makeup and views suggest that the Tea Party movement is more a rebranding of core Republicanism than a new or distinct entity on the American political scene."
Just 6% called themselves a pure independent and 15% placed themselves somewhere on the Democratic spectrum.
Polling shows Tea Partiers are just as enthusiastic about voting as conservative Republicans and 80% said they would vote for a Republican in November -- though that's lower than the 95% of conservative Republicans who plan to vote GOP.
"Republican leaders who worry about the Tea Party's impact on their races may in fact (and more simply) be defined as largely worrying about their party's core base," Newport notes. "Additionally, GOP leaders eager to maximize turnout this fall may do just as well by targeting the more traditional voting category of conservative Republicans as by expending energy and effort to target those who identify with the Tea Party movement."
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