Gallup polls Americans on jobs, ACA, the election and political correctness

NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller sits down for his weekly conversation with Gallup’s Frank Newport to talk about trends in American opinion.

As the presidential race pivots to New York and Pennsylvania’s upcoming primaries, one important finding is the degree to which Democrats remain significantly more united than Republicans. More than seven in 10 Democrats like Hillary Clinton, and more than seven in 10 like Bernie Sanders.

On the other hand, just about five in 10 like Donald Trump and just about five in 10 like Ted Cruz. This means Republicans are going to have a harder time than Democrats as the election process continues.

One apparent consequence of the dog fighting among Republicans is the toll on party identification.

Compared with the fall, a significantly higher percentage of Americans now identify as Democrats than Republicans, while the two parties were equal before.

Princeton University this week announced it would keep the name Woodrow Wilson on the School of Public and International Affairs and on a residential college. A new Gallup study of U.S. college students shows most reject the idea that colleges should be able to establish policies restricting the expression of political views that upset or offend certain groups. But students support restricting language or expression that intentionally hurts or offends others, such as using racial or ethnic slurs or wearing costumes that stereotype certain groups.

And polling finds more evidence that the Affordable Care Act is working, at least in some ways. In the first quarter of 2016, the uninsured rate among all U.S. adults reached 11 percent, down from 11.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015. This is a record low since Gallup began tracking the uninsured rate in 2008.