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Americans political preferences shifted dramatically over 2021, swinging from a nine percentage-point lead for Democrats at the beginning of the year to ending with a five-point advantage for Republicans, according to a poll released Monday.

In the first quarter of 2021, 49 percent of Americans said they identified as a Democrat or leaned Democratic, while 40 percent identified as Republican or leaned Republican, according to a Gallup survey.

The Democrats lead over the GOP was the highest since the fourth quarter of 2012.

The percentage for Democrats remained unchanged at 49 percent going into the second quarter, but the percentage for Republicans ticked up three percentage points.

Then in thethird quarter, Republicans topped Democrats 45 percent to 44 percent a trend that continued through the final three months of 2021.

Republicans ended the year with a 47 percent to 42 percent advantage over Democrats.

The reversal appears to track President Bidens downward slide in the polls that began in July and August because of the disastrous US military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the sputtering economy a decline thatculminated in record low numbers for Biden by the end of the year.

The pollster noted that the GOP has held a five-point lead in only four quarters since it began measuring party identification in 1991, one of them occurring after the 1994 midterm elections when Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time since 1952.

Gallup attributed the shifting preferences to the changing poll numbers over the year for Biden and former President Donald Trump.

While Trumps job approval ratings fell to 34 percent in January the lowest of his term Biden was enjoying ratings in the mid-50s after his inauguration on Jan. 20.

By December, Bidens job approval ratings had plummeted to around 40 percent, brought down by a surge in coronavirus cases, increasing inflation and a stalled legislative agenda.

The survey results are based on aggregated data from interviews with 12,000 randomly sampled adults during the year, Gallup said.

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Party preferences shifted from Dems to GOP in 2021, survey finds - New York Post