Ed. note: This is a guest post from Nathan Kalmoe and Mike Wagner, who are highlighting some new interesting survey material on party convention delegates collected in 2024. Definitely read and check out the linked material!
We know a lot about what Democratic and Republican voters think, thanks to prolific survey research, but we know far less (apart from Seth Masket’s work) about how party leaders beyond elected ones think about American politics and their parties.
The Center for Communication and Civic Renewal at the University of Wisconsin — Madison is releasing a report this week, sharing results from our module on a collaborative survey of 2024 national party convention delegates, conducted in the spring of 2025.1
We found that Republican and Democratic delegates largely agree on the strategies parties should pursue when electioneering and governing, but they disagree sharply on the goals they have for the country, their attitudes about recognizing rights for different groups, and the news they trust.
Party Strategy
Delegates in both parties were evenly split when forced to choose an election strategy of mobilizing existing supporters or persuading undecided voters. They tended to believe that the other party does better by focusing on persuasion compared to their own party.
While delegates held mixed views about whether their side would be more likely to win if party delegates truly chose the nominees (like they did before 1972), they slightly favored giving themselves more authority in choosing presidential nominees.
Majorities of delegates in both parties also agreed that Republican and Democratic lawmakers should spend more time finding common ground on policy-making, though Democratic delegates were far more likely to think so than Republican delegates.
And now, to the disagreement.
Important Goals for America
We asked delegates “Which of these (if any) should be important goals for America?”
Ensuring all people have what they need to live a decent life.
Governments should treat every group of Americans equitably.
Every American should have an equal say in what governments do.
Delegates could choose multiple options or they could indicate “None of these.”
Democratic delegates were dramatically more likely to choose equal representation, equal rights, and well-being for all as important national goals compared to Republican delegates. Nearly half of Republicans said “none of these” compared to 1% of Democrats. The two parties were closest on well-being for all, but Democrats still supported it more by 26 points.
When we gave the delegates specific examples of making representation more equal in the U.S., more than 90% of Democratic delegates supported the popular election of presidents and Puerto Rican statehood, and half of Democratic delegates supported amending the U.S. Constitution via popular referenda. No more than 15% of Republican delegates supported any of those proposals. Nearly all Democratic delegates supported limiting harm to workers and consumers, with paltry support among Republican delegates.
News Media Trust
Finally, delegates are living in completely different universes regarding news they trust (and don’t). We asked, “What national news source do you trust most?” and we gave them space to type their answer. A large number listed multiple outlets despite the question’s request for one.
A large majority of Republican delegates listed conservative news sources as the ones they trust most, and 19% of Republicans who wrote that they trusted none. Republicans mentioned trusting Fox News (31%), Newsmax (12%), and Epoch Times (4%).
In contrast, Democratic delegates predominantly trusted mainstream news most, including the New York Times, National Public Radio, and CNN. Only 14% said that progressive sources were among their most trusted, including 9% for MSNBC (MSNOW).
We also asked delegates, “What national news source do you trust least?”
Democratic delegates focused their distrust almost entirely on the sources Republicans trust most – Fox News and other conservative outlets. Republicans predominantly focused their greatest distrust on outlets that Democrats don’t trust most: MSNBC (MSNOW) and CNN.
Michael W. Wagner is the William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea and Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He regularly played “Tusk” in high school pep band.
Nathan P. Kalmoe is the Executive Administrative Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of a few scholarly books, including With Ballots and Bullets: Partisanship & Violence in the American Civil War. He listened to Tusk before publishing this piece, but it doesn’t sound familiar.
The 2024 Cooperative Convention Delegate Survey was organized by Professor Barry Burden at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 443 Democratic delegates out of 4,695 (9.4% of the population) and 213 Republican delegates out of 2,429 (8.8% of the population) provided complete survey responses. Barry gave us permission to present results for the persuade/mobilize question from his module in the survey
