With election season here, hearing middle-aged dads at the grocery store raving about the Doctrine of Trump is anything but uncommon. In fact, it may even make us wonder: are there any dads out there who aren’t right-winged? A familial herd adorned in Bernie T-shirts seems hard to come by. So what is the enigma that is the American Dad?

The History:

Let’s start with the origins of Republican-oriented dads by backtracking one generation. (Quick disclaimer: it’s obvious that geography plays a part in determining one’s political affiliation, but we will be statistically researching dads as a group – a single entity, if you will.) If we define our archetypal dad as a 45-to-50-year-old, Sketcher-sporting, barbecue-grilling guy, it’s safe to assume that his dad grew up under the reign of President Harry Truman. Though Truman’s approval ratings dropped at an alarming rate after his first term, this conservative wartime leader stood as a symbol of the anti-Communist good-old-boy for our grandfathers’ generation. Whether they like it or not, it’s hard to deny that Grandpa’s war-loving spirit and burning patriotism was influenced (at least somewhat) by his childhood president. So what does this mean for the dads of today?

Modern-Day Dad Theory:

Because the current polls aren’t too demographically rich at this point, let’s look to the statistics from the last presidential election. According to the National Board of Voter Statistics, 55 percent of American males voted for Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

Karen Lèbe from Albuquerque, New Mexico, calls her dad “shamelessly devoted” to the Republican Party. “If the Republican Party was a Whitney Houston song, you could say that my dad has been ‘saving all his love’ for them.” Standing outside her parents’ home, it’s hard to ignore the congregation of Ted Cruz signs. In fact, the entire street seems lined with them, which is a bit of a surprise in a state that isn’t traditionally conservative. Although we could have concluded our research here, we took one more step to ensure the integrity of our results – we took a poll.

The Verdict:

There’s nothing shocking here: the results of our poll validated our hypothesis more than any of our research. An overwhelming 82 percent of respondents (ages 16 to 25) stated that their dads identify with the Republican party, and 6 percent of the remaining 28 percent said their dads are unaffiliated. Overall, it seems safe to say that most of the dads you see on a daily basis, including – gasp! – your own, are in fact devotees of the Grand Old Party.