Younger online political users tilt in favor of the Democrats in general and Obama in particular, and that has a bearing on the partisan breakdown of online activity. Simply put, Democrats and Obama backers are more in evidence on the internet than backers of other candidates or parties. Among Democrats, Obama’s supporters are more likely than Clinton’s supporters to be internet users—82% vs. 71%. And even among the internet users in both camps, Obama’s supporters are more actively engaged online than Clinton’s supporters—three-quarters of online Obama’s supporters (74%) have gotten political news and information online, compared with 57% of online Clinton’s supporters.

In a head-to-head matchup against Republican John McCain in the fall, Obama also has some online advantages. Obama and McCain supporters are equally likely to use the internet, but some 65% of online Obama’s supporters in a fall contest say they get political news and information on the internet, compared with 56% of online McCain’s supporters.

At the level of party partisanship, there are few differences on basic measures such as using the internet or going online to look for political news and information:

• 78% of Republicans, 74% of Democrats, and 76% of independents go online.
• Among internet users, 55% of Republicans, 61% of Democrats, and 56% of independents look online for news about politics or the 2008 campaigns.
• Overall, 49% of Republicans, 50% of Democrats, and 48% of independents use the internet, email, or text messaging to learn about the campaign and engage in the political process.

Yet despite these outward similarities, wired Democrats are outpacing online Republicans in their usage of the internet for political reasons—from social networking to watching online video to contributing money online to signing up for campaign-related email. In large part, these differences result from the relative youth of those who self-identify as Democrats. Young Democrats and Republicans utilize tools such as online video at similar rates, but this youthful, tech-savvy cohort of voters makes up a larger proportion of all Democrats.

The relatively small sample of wired Democrats in our survey prevents a robust age-based analysis of Obama and Clinton supporters, although a similar phenomenon is likely in evidence within the Democratic primary race.