Afebruary 2007 gallup poll question asked, "in politics, as of today, do you consider yourself a republican, a democrat, or an independent? " the possible responses were "democrat", "republican", "independent", "other", and "no response". what kind of variable is the response?

The kind of variable in the responses “Democrat”, “Republican”, “Independent”, “Other”, and “No Response” is a categorical variable since the choices does not associate with any kind of unit.

Literally speaking, categorical variables are variables that fall into a specific category. Categorical variable is also known as qualitative variable.