Poll: Whites becoming more solidly Republican

White people in the United States have become more solidly Republican in recent years, a new poll suggests.

A Gallup poll released Monday found the margin between whites who have identified as Republicans compared to nonwhites who have identified as Democrats has become more polarized. 

{mosads}Over the last four years, for example, whites identified as members of the GOP by 9 to 14 percentage points more than nonwhites who considered themselves Democrats, the survey found. 

A 61-point racial and ethnic gap Gallup measured in party preferences in recent years is the largest the polling firm has recorded in the last 20 years. 

Since 2008, the gaps between the political parties whites and nonwhites associate with have been 55 percentage points or higher each year.

Nonwhites have also had a roughly 47-percentage-point Democratic advantage over the last three presidential administrations.

Whites, by contrast, have become more Republican. Under President Bill Clinton, they had a 4.1-percentage-point Republican advantage. That increased to a 9.5-percentage-point advantage under President Obama.