Common Ground in the Battlegrounds

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Oct 29, 2024, 14:00 ET

Surveys in Six Swing States and Nationwide Find Over Fifty Policies Supported by Majorities of Both Republicans and Democrats

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Oct. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A series of surveys conducted in battleground states and nationwide asked about 66 Federal policy issues across a wide range of controversial topics, and found that for 55 of them majorities of Republicans and Democrats in every battleground state and nationwide agree on what Federal policy should be.

The survey series, called the Swing Six Issue Surveys, were conducted by the Program for Public Consultation (PPC) at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy over the last five months in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as nationally. Each state sample had approximately 600 adults, while nearly all national samples had approximately 1,200 adults.

"While there is intense polarization in the public discourse over who should be elected to the White House and Congress, there is a surprising amount of common ground, in battleground states and nationwide, on what policies the Federal government should or should not pursue." commented Steven Kull, director of PPC.

Healthcare Costs
Bipartisan majorities in the swing states and nationally support a variety of proposals for the Federal government to seek to bring down healthcare costs. They favor capping drug prices to what is charged in other developed countries (swing states 77-81%, Republicans 72-82%, Democrats 84-87%), which would cut prices by about half, as well as reforming patent law to bring generic drugs to market faster, and making healthcare costs more transparent. They also favor making permanent the higher Affordable Care Act subsidies for health insurance initially put in place during the pandemic.

Housing Costs
Proposals for Federal action to lower the costs of renting and buying homes, such as providing $40 billion to increase affordable housing for very low and low-income people are supported by bipartisan majorities (swing states 69-73%, Republicans 57-63%, Democrats 79-89%). Also popular were proposals to stop large corporate ownership of single-family housing.

Families and Children
Bipartisan majorities favor the Federal government strengthening the support system for families and children, including creating new entitlements. This includes raising the Child Tax Credit to $3,600 and making it fully refundable as it was during the pandemic (swing states 69-77%, Republicans 60-71%, Democrats 80-85%), investing in universal free preschool, subsidizing childcare for low- and middle-income parents, and creating a national paid family and medical leave program for all workers.

"Republicans as well as Democrats show remarkably strong agreement that the Federal government should take an active role in reducing the cost of living, especially for low and middle-income Americans," comments Steven Kull, director of PPC.

Abortion and Birth Control
Bipartisan majorities do not support criminalizing abortion after fetal viability (swing states 73-80%, Republicans 57-70%, Democrats 83-93%), and would prefer any abortion law be federal rather than leave it up to the states. At the same time, there is robust support for seeking to reduce the number of abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, through a mix of policies to increase access to birth control.

Immigration
To deal with the 11 million undocumented immigrants who have been living in the US, bipartisan majorities do not support mass deportation (swing states 69-75%, Republicans 56-64% and Democrats 78-86%). Rather, most support providing those who do not have a criminal record and pay their taxes a visa and a path to citizenship. At the same time, there is strong support for strengthening the border and cracking down on employers hiring illegal workers, provided that there is an expanded work visa program.

International Trade
Bipartisan majorities do not support imposing across-the-board tariffs of 10-20%, but rather continuing to keep tariffs low with trade partners (swing states 64-71%, Republicans 57-65%, Democrats 66-77%) as part of an international rules-based system. At the same time, there is support for high tariffs on China because of its alleged violations.

Energy and the Environment
When presented key energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, bipartisan majorities supported keeping three tax credits for producing clean energy, five tax credits for energy-efficiency improvements, and three tax credits for electric vehicles and public charging stations. Bipartisan majorities in most states oppose expanding offshore drilling (prefer maintaining or reducing: swing states 69-76%, Republicans 52-63%, Democrats 79-88%).

International Engagement
Bipartisan majorities want US foreign policy to place a high priority on the principle of collective security, by contributing to the collective defense of nations attacked by international aggressors. In most swing states, bipartisan majorities support continuing to provide military aid to Ukraine (swing states 64-71%, Republicans 50-60%, Democrats 73-85%).

Social Security
To address Social Security's funding shortfall, bipartisan majorities support a package that includes two revenue increases and two benefit reductions. This includes making wages over $400,000 subject to the payroll tax, which currently only applies to income up to $169,000 (swing states 86-89%, Republicans 83-89%, Democrats 83-92%), and gradually raising the full retirement age to 68 (swing states 88-91%, Republicans 88%-94%, Democrats 87%-92%). Bipartisan majorities also favor raising benefits for low lifetime income earners and the very old.

Respondents in each survey went through online "public consultation surveys" in which they were provided a short briefing on each policy option, evaluated arguments for and against, and then made their final policy recommendations. The content of the surveys was reviewed by proponents and opponents of the policies under consideration in nearly all cases, to ensure the briefings were accurate and balanced and that the strongest arguments were being made.

About the Surveys
The ten surveys were fielded in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and nationally, from May 23 - October 14, 2024 by the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. Samples were obtained from multiple online opt-in panels, including Cint, Dynata and Prodege. Sample collection and quality control was managed by QuantifyAI under the direction of the Program for Public Consultation.

Each state sample had approximately 600 adults, with confidence intervals ranging from +/- 4.4% to 4.6%. Nearly all national samples had approximately 1,200 adults, with confidence intervals of +/-3.2%. The samples were pre-stratified and weighted by age, race, ethnicity, gender, education, household income, and metro/non-metro status in every case, as well as marital status, home ownership, and partisan affiliation in most cases, to match the general adult population. The national sample was further weighted by Census region.

Common Ground in the Battlegrounds Report, including the full methodology and links to questionnaires for each survey.

Reports on Each Swing Six Survey: