Democrats overtook GOP in 2012 party affiliation:

[frigidmagi]

yahoo

More Americans identified as Democrats than Republicans in 2012, according to a new Gallup estimate. This re-establishes a lead Democrats held in the U.S. until 2010 and 2011, when the two major parties were tied.

Forty-seven percent of Americans self-identified as Democrats or independents who leaned Democratic last year, and 42 percent of Americans identified as or leaned Republican, according to surveys of adults conducted by Gallup/USA Today throughout 2012.

Since Gallup began surveying party identification in 1991, Democrats typically held an advantage, with a 12-point high over Republicans in 2008. The parties were last essentially tied in 2010 and 2011.

The margin of error for the 2012 polls was plus or minus 1 percentage point.

This does tend to lend evidence to the idea that the Republicans are on the wrong side of demographics, but you would want a larger sample then a single election year.

[Josh]

I'm actually surprised that the Republicans ever had the lead. I haven't been keeping up with the numbers, but when I was into things the Dems typically had a larger base of registered voters. The historical trend was that the Dems tended to have less committed voters and had to be stirred into action, while the Republicans could count on a more consistent turnout from the base most years.