PRINCETON, N.J., June 11 (UPI) -- Nearly 40 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have an unfavorable opinion of the GOP, a Gallup poll indicates.

The USA Today/Gallup poll released Thursday found that on the Democratic side, just 7 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have an unfavorable opinion their party.


The poll, conducted May 29-31, indicates the top-of-the-mind images of the Republican Party among Republicans are more negative than are the images of the Democratic Party among Democrats.

Among all Americans, the poll shows a 19-point advantage for the Democratic Party over the Republican Party when it comes to the two parties' respective favorable images.

"Although it is generally well known that the Republican Party has an image problem today (after all, the Democrats have control of the White House and both houses of Congress), these findings reinforce the depth of that problem by pointing out the degree to which Republicans themselves have a lower opinion of their party than Democrats do of their party," Gallup said in its analysis.

The telephone survey of 1,015 national adults has a maximum margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.