Recap:
Pew Research has just come out with a new typology that sorts the American public into nine groups based on their political values and beliefs. This is their ninth political typology study since the first one in 1987. The current typology is based on a survey of 10,357 U.S. adults conducted in November 2025. The 2026 Pew report includes additional data on the same respondents from 15 separate surveys conducted over the course of 2025 and 2026, as well as records from prior Pew Research election surveys and commercial voter files. Throughout this series, I’ll be delving into the data, looking for patterns and seeking a deeper understanding of what the hell in going on in this country.
Here are the nine types:
No Apologies Right: Unwavering Trump supporters with a pugilistic political style and an ‘America first’ outlook - 9% of U.S. adults and 19% of the Republican Party.
Faith First Conservatives: Staunch conservatives and strong Trump supporters who stand out for their faith-oriented politics - 12% U.S. adults and 25% of the Republican Party.
Unconventional Right: Conservative on immigration and culture, but they break from those to their right on some other key issues - 12% of U.S. adults and 19% of the Republican Party.
Pragmatic and Polite Right: Moderate in tone and on many issues, with a small-government streak - 11% of U.S. adults and 14% of the Republican Party.
Order and Opportunity Left: Economically liberal positions with moderate stances on immigration and concerns about safety and crime - 18% U.S. adults and 24% of the Democratic Party.
Left-Out Left: Democratic-leaning, with a mix of liberal and moderate views and limited confidence in the parties and the political system - 12% U.S. adults and 18% of the Democratic Party.
Loyal Liberals: Liberal across most issues, they are invested in the Democratic Party and in domestic and international institutions - 11% of U.S. adults and 21% of the Democratic Party.
Leftward Progressive: Liberal across the board, they are among the strongest critics of the U.S. economic system and the Trump administration - 7% of U.S. adults and 14% of the Democratic Party.
Tuned-Out Middle: Largely disconnected from politics, they tilt liberal on economic concerns but not on social issues - 9% of U.S. adults, 8% of the Republican Party, and 9% of the Democratic Party.
Note: Pew’s typologies reveal patterns and opinion clusters in complex data. They are not universal essences or timeless categories that discount individual variation or change. To be a political type is to have views and opinions that are closer to one data cluster than the others.
Source: Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology / Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. June 10, 2026. Supplementary material: Appendix A, Appendix B, and Appendix C.
—
The last post speculated about the relationship between age, political type and perceptions of economic opportunity in the US. I found that Leftward Progressives skew much younger than the other political types (40% 18-29) and relatively few have reached age 50+ (21%, compared to, say, 68% for the Pragmatic and Polite Right). Which means relatively few Leftward Progressives have ridden the wave of peak earnings. No wonder so many progressives consider the American Dream a myth – they haven’t experienced it yet.
This post continues the theme of lived experience and attitudes about social mobility across the lifespan, specifically attitudes related to personal agency and control over financial outcomes. The Pew Survey asked panelists the perfect question for my purpose: “How much personal control do you think most Americans have over how financially successful they will be in life?” Here’s the breakdown by type of the “Not much” and “None at all” responses:
Ok, we have a clear pattern here, with Progressives and the Left-out Left on one side and all four mostly-Republicans on the other. Now for these groups’ lived experience:
Ignoring the Loyal Liberals for now, the mostly Republican groups are managing better than the mostly-Democrat. Here’s the typology breakdown for those that are unable to meet their basic expenses:
Not much of a surprise here. Overall, the Reds are doing better managing their finances than the Blues, except for the Loyal Liberals. What’s up with that? I don’t know.
The pattern is still clear: those who experience even modest financial success are more likely to credit personal control than those who are struggling to pay their bills.