The upcoming Democratic National Convention is generating much more public interest than did the party's convention four years ago. Fully 59% of Americans say they are interested in following what happens at the Democratic convention, up from 36% in 2004. Nearly a third (31%) say they are very interested, while 28% say they are fairly interested in developments from Denver next week.
Roughly half of the public (48%) expresses interest in following this year's Republican National Convention. This is comparable to interest in the 2004 GOP convention, but significantly higher than 2000, when the party first selected George W. Bush as its nominee.
Democrats are especially enthusiastic about their party's convention next week. An overwhelming majority of Democrats (79%) say they are interested in following the convention. More than a third of Democrats (36%) say they plan to watch all or most of the television coverage of the convention, another 30% plan to watch some of it.
Most Democrats say they are very interested in hearing Barack Obama's speech accepting the party's nomination. However, those who favored Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination express only modest interest in Obama's address: just 43% say they are very interested in hearing Obama's acceptance speech while a larger percentage (56%) expresses strong interest in hearing Hillary Clinton's address to the convention.
Read the full report Strong Advance Interest in Democratic Convention on the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Web site.