We are constantly told that America is hopelessly divided.
Turn on cable news, scroll through social media, or listen to Washington politicians, and you would think Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on anything.
The polling tells a very different story.
For years, my team at America’s New Majority Project has been studying the issues that bring Americans together rather than divide them. When you look beyond partisan labels and ask people about specific policies, something notable happens.
On issue after issue, 70, 80, and sometimes even 90 percent of Americans agree.
In Episode 4 of my five-part How to Win 2026 series, I examine these issues and ask a simple question: Which party is actually willing to align its votes with the values of the American people?
Start With the American People
The idea behind America’s New Majority Project goes back to the late Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot and a great American patriot.
Bernie believed deeply in the common sense of the American people. He was concerned that our political system had become trapped in narrow partisan warfare, so he challenged us to apply lessons we had learned from President Ronald Reagan and the Contract with America to something new.
Instead of beginning with Republican or Democratic positions, begin with the American people. Find the issues where overwhelming majorities already agree and build from there.
For this episode, I set the threshold at 70 percent, and I deliberately excluded issues that did not meet it. The result is a remarkably broad agenda that crosses traditional party lines.
Voter ID and Election Integrity
Consider voter identification.
Pew Research Center found 83 percent of American adults support requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification. Gallup found a similar result: 84 percent, including 98 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of independents, and 67 percent of Democrats.
Our own polling found 77 percent of Americans believe requiring government-issued photo ID to vote is simply common sense. Seventy-nine percent said the same about requiring proof of citizenship to register.
These are not narrow Republican positions. They represent an enormous American consensus. In fact, the most interesting divide is not between Republican and Democratic voters.
It is between what many Democratic voters tell pollsters they support and what Democratic elected officials in Washington are willing to support.
That gap is central to what I mean when I talk about Republicans becoming the American Party.
A Governing-Class Gap
Term limits provide an even more dramatic example.
An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found 83 percent of Americans support limiting how long members of Congress can serve. That includes 78 percent of Democrats, 89 percent of Republicans, and 84 percent of independents.
Eighty percent of Americans support a maximum age limit for members of Congress, and 86 percent support banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks while in office.
Congress is beginning to act. The House recently passed the STOP INSIDER TRADING Act, which prohibits members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from purchasing individual stocks and requires public notice before they sell them. The bill passed 232-198, with only 13 Democrats voting in favor.
At this level, we are no longer talking about a partisan divide. We are talking about a governing-class divide.
The American people overwhelmingly agree that the rules of accountability which apply to everyone else should apply to Congress too.
An Economic and Health Care Majority
Some of the largest majorities appear when Americans are asked about their economic lives.
Our polling found eighty-seven percent support cutting taxes for middle- and working-class Americans to grow the economy.
Eighty-three percent support eliminating federal income taxes on Social Security benefits.
Eighty-four percent believe consumers, rather than government, should decide whether they buy electric or gas-powered vehicles and appliances.
The same pattern appears in health care.
Eighty-four percent support requiring hospitals and health care providers to give patients clear, upfront prices before receiving care.
Eighty-seven percent support reducing prescription drug prices by cutting out middlemen.
Seventy-eight percent want patients and doctors, rather than insurance companies or government bureaucrats, to have the power to make health care decisions.
Notice what connects these ideas. They shift power away from institutions and toward individual Americans. That is also at the heart of the Republican health care plan I will discuss in the final episode of this series.
Americans Agree on the Border More Than Washington Does
Immigration is often described as one of America’s most divisive political issues.
Yet when Americans are asked about specific policies instead of broad political labels, the picture changes dramatically.
Our polling found eighty-three percent support requiring local law enforcement to check immigration status and detain illegal immigrants for deportation when they are arrested for another crime.
Seventy-four percent support securing the border and fixing the law before deciding what to do with people already here illegally.
Seventy-two percent support requiring employers to use E-Verify.
Seventy-five percent support requiring asylum seekers to enter through legal ports of entry.
This distinction matters.
Americans may disagree about how to characterize immigration broadly, but they are much more united around specific, practical steps to enforce the law and secure the border.
An American Majority Built Around American Values
Perhaps the most encouraging findings are not about government programs at all.
They are about who we are.
Eighty-six percent of Americans say they are grateful to be American.
More than eighty percent say family is important, and forty-nine percent rank family as their single most important value.
Eighty percent say freedom of religion is important to America’s identity.
Our own research found ninety-one point two percent agreement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s standard that the content of a person’s character matters more than the color of their skin.
These findings show something that our political culture too often obscures. The American people still share a remarkable foundation of common values.
We disagree about politics. We disagree about candidates. We disagree about how government should implement some of these values. But underneath those disagreements is a country that remains far more united than the political system makes it appear.
Becoming the American Party
I want to be precise about what I mean by the American Party.
I am not suggesting that 80 percent of Americans are Republicans.
I am not suggesting the Republican Party is universally popular.
The opportunity is much more specific and much more important.
There is a growing list of concrete policies on which seven, eight, and sometimes nine out of 10 Americans agree. These include voter ID, congressional reform, middle-class tax cuts, health care price transparency, border enforcement, work requirements, parental rights, equal treatment, and other common-sense reforms.
Republicans have an opportunity to become the party that listens to these majorities, organizes around them, and turns their values into action.
That is what becoming the American Party means. Not requiring that Americans adopt the Republican agenda but building a Republican agenda around the things Americans already overwhelmingly believe.
Ask for the Poll
There is one final lesson I hope people take from this episode.
The next time any politician says, “The American people want this,” ask them to prove it.
Ask for the poll.
Ask who conducted it.
Ask when it was conducted.
Ask exactly how the question was worded.
After more than five decades in politics, I have learned that many claims about what the American people supposedly believe do not survive that kind of scrutiny.
The issues in this episode do. That should be the standard for How to Win 2026. Not whether an idea flatters Republicans but whether it can survive someone actually checking. That is how we can build a genuine American majority.
Listen to Episode 4 of How to Win 2026:
The Republican Opportunity
How to Win 2026 is part of a larger effort to identify the ideas, policies, and arguments that can create a lasting American majority.
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The problem is this: the reason why the Democratic party and the Republicans party are not together is because they not unified. The Democratic party is purely Demonic. The Republicans party is following their footsteps.