Republicans and Republican leaners are more divided in expectations for most of these groups, with gay and lesbian people a notable exception. Comparable shares of Democrats (63%) and Republicans (60%) say gays and lesbians will gain influence, though 12% of Republicans say they will lose influence versus just 5% of Democrats.

Republicans are less likely than Democrats to say women and Black people will gain influence, though on balance, more Republicans say both groups will gain influence than say they will lose it.

There are more striking differences in views of how poor people will be affected. Roughly seven-in-ten Democrats (69%) say poor people will gain influence under Biden, while just 29% of Republicans say the same. In fact, 42% of Republicans say poor people will lose influence, with 27% expecting the poor to be unaffected.

And Republicans (48%) are far more likely than Democrats (13%) to say wealthy people will gain influence with Biden as president. Larger shares of Democrats than Republicans say wealthy people will either lose influence or not be affected by a Biden presidency. 

In 2017, White people and men were two of the groups that were widely expected to gain influence with Trump as president. Today, Republicans and Democrats have very different expectations for these groups. A majority of Republicans (58%) expect White people to lose influence over the next four years. In contrast, a similar share of Democrats (60%) expect that White people’s influence will not be affected.

There is a similar pattern in views of men. While a majority of Democrats say men’s influence in Washington will not be affected by a Biden presidency (66%), Republicans are more divided: 41% expect men to lose influence, while 42% say their influence will not be affected.

Differences by race and ethnicity in views of how White people will be affected by Biden’s election

While majorities of adults say they think Black and Hispanic people will gain influence in Washington now that Biden is president (65% and 53%, respectively), the public is more divided on how White people will be affected.

On balance, more than twice as many adults say White people will lose influence (38%) rather than gain influence (15%) in the Biden administration, with a plurality saying their influence will not be affected. But there are sharp divides in these views by race: 44% of White adults say they think White people will lose influence in Washington, while far smaller shares of Black and Hispanic adults say the same (23% and 28%, respectively).

Similarly, while just 9% of White adults say White people will gain influence in the Biden administration, about a quarter of Black (27%) and Hispanic (25%) adults expect White people’s influence to grow.

Overall, about two-thirds of adults say that Black people will gain influence in the Biden administration; this includes about two-thirds of Black (67%) and White (65%) adults, as well as 61% of Hispanic adults. A majority of adults (53%) also expect Hispanic people to gain influence, including 56% of Hispanic adults, 62% of Black adults and 50% of White adults.

Wide partisan differences over whether ‘people like yourself’ will gain or lose influence

Overall, large shares across many groups of Americans say the influence of “people like yourself” will not be affected with Biden taking office, but there are some notable differences by race, partisanship and ideology.

Among the public overall, 39% of adults say the influence of people like them will not be affected, while a slightly smaller share (36%) say they will lose influence in Washington. About a quarter (24%) say people like them will gain influence.

Nearly half of White adults (45%) say people like them will lose influence in Washington, while only 16% say they will gain influence and 39% say they will not be affected.

Black adults, by contrast, are far more likely to say people like them will gain (53%) than lose (7%) influence. Fewer Hispanic (33%) and Asian American adults (30%) expect that people like them will gain influence.

The widest gaps in perceptions of how people like them will be affected by the new president are by partisanship. Republicans and Republican leaners generally feel like they will lose influence in Washington with Biden as president: 66% say people like them will lose influence, while 27% expect to not be affected and just 7% say they will gain influence.

Among Republicans, conservatives are more likely than moderates and liberals to say people like them will lose influence (75% vs. 52%, respectively).

Democrats are far less likely than Republicans to say that people like them will lose influence, but most do not expect to gain influence. Half of Democrats and Democratic leaners say people like them will not be affected with Biden as president, while 40% say they will gain influence; just 10% expect to lose influence. Liberal Democrats are more likely than conservative and moderate Democrats to say people like them will gain influence in Washington (45% vs. 36%, respectively).

Acknowledgments