The latest battlefield for partisan bickering isn’t the sequestration debate — it’s the food court.
According to a Public Policy Polling survey released on Tuesday, food preferences — croissants versus donuts, Chick-fil-A versus Kentucky Fried Chicken —can break down party lines.
For example, the poll found that given a choice of donuts, croissants or bagels, 34 percent of Democrats picked bagels and 32 percent chose croissants, while the bulk of Republicans — 35 percent —opted for donuts, followed by 34 percent for bagels.
Support for vegetarians also fell along a partisan divide: Democrats view vegetarians favorably, 63-16 percent, while Republicans say the same only 38-30 percent.
The divide was even starker for vegans: 48 percent of Democrats view vegans favorably while 22 percent do not; 31 percent of Republicans back vegans while another 41 percent view the animal product-abstainers unfavorably. Republicans also overwhelmingly favor Chick-fil-A when it comes to fast food chicken restaurants, with 48 percent of GOPers naming it their top chicken pick; Democrats opted for KFC, which got 39 percent of that group’s vote.
Common ground was found, however, in categories like pizza and soda. Pizza Hut was the top pizza pick for Democrats and Republicans alike, and Coke beat out Pepsi on both sides of the aisle. And 41 percent of both Democrats and Republicans view fast food favorably, while 50 percent from both parties do not.
The poll of 500 registered voters was conducted Feb. 21-24, and the overall sample has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.4 percentage points.
