[New post] Preserving democracy and economy are top issues motivating Americans to vote, 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll finds
Southern Maryland Chronicle News Desk posted: " By: Errin Haines, Barbara Rodriguez, Jasmine Mithani, The 19th News As Americans prepare to head to the polls in less than two months, the issue of democracy is top of mind for many, according to a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll. "Preserving democ" The Southern Maryland Chronicle
"Preserving democracy" tied with "jobs and the economy" as the top issue for Americans in the midterm elections, with nearly a quarter of adults choosing the issue as most important. It was the clear choice among Democrats at 34 percent.
The party split plays out across genders, with Republican-leaning men (31 percent) and women (29 percent) more likely to say jobs and the economy is their top motivator for voting. Preserving democracy was likelier to motivate Democratic men (37 percent) and women (33 percent). Among independents, jobs and the economy is the top issue for men (32 percent), women (30 percent), and gender-nonconforming people (22 percent). For gender-nonconforming Democrats, LGBTQ+ issues are the top motivator to vote; not enough gender-nonconforming Republicans were surveyed for analysis.
What's motivating Americans to vote
Share of Americans in the 2022 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll who indicated each of the following was the main motivation for voting
Motivation
Men
Women
Gender-nonconforming
All
Jobs and the economy
26%
23%
18%
24%
Preserving democracy
25%
24%
12%
24%
America's place in the world
9%
10%
8%
10%
To vote against a political party
9%
6%
6%
7%
Abortion
4%
10%
7%
7%
To support my political party
5%
5%
3%
5%
Climate and the environment
5%
5%
6%
5%
Family history
2%
2%
3%
2%
LGBTQ+ issues
2%
2%
16%
2%
Other
10%
9%
12%
10%
No answer
3%
5%
8%
4%
Poll fielded online from August 22-29, 2022, among a national sample of 20,799 adults with a modeled error estimate of ±1.0 percentage points.
Numbers may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.
In campaign ads and on the stump, Republicans have blamed Democrats for inflation and the high cost of living from the gas pump to the grocery store. Democrats have cast Republicans as too extreme on abortion and a threat to democracy, pointing to candidates who have embraced false claims that the 2020 election results were invalid.
According to a FiveThirtyEight analysis, election deniers are on the ballot for roughly 60 percent of Americans this fall. Polling shows that 70 percent of Republicans continue to believe former President Donald Trump did not lose in 2020 — a lie he still tells regularly as he holds rallies amid an ongoing inquiry into his involvement in January 6, 2021, insurrection.
Andrea Benjamin, an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, said voters might be reassessing the health of government following not just the 2020 election but the Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal abortion rights. Some potential voters may realize that governing bodies such as state legislatures have immense power to impact their lives.
"It's sort of a perfect storm," Benjamin told The 19th. "... I think this idea of saving democracy may come back to some of those questions."
The 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll shows that 2 in 5 Americans believe democracy works "very" or "somewhat" well for them. Martha Sheard of Snellville, Georgia, 51, said it works somewhat well for her. The Detroit native, who moved to the Atlanta suburb 15 years ago and owned a home repair business, said, "there are so many forces" working against Democrats. Sheard is also a Democrat and wants President Joe Biden to get more of his agenda through Congress.
"Things could be better if everything weren't a fight," she said.
Sheard and her wife have voted absentee in recent cycles, and she's planning how she will vote in November. Her previous ballot dropbox was moved, and she said there's confusion in the state after new voting laws were passed in 2021.
Still, she said, the stakes are too high not to vote. Sheard recently talked to three of her employees, all Black men, about making sure they're registered and planning to turn out, too.
"I told them, 'We can't sit out,'" Sheard said. "If we don't have a democracy, only White men get to tell everybody what to do. We don't have all the money, but we can still fight. They want to make it so hard, but we know how easy it can be, and they're making it harder to vote."
Preserving democracy, which Sheard named as her top motivation, may have different meanings for voters, said Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, a political science professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. It covers political flashpoints such as reproductive choice, the protection of voting rights, and even the future of school curricula and books. She said it also allows for "a broader and more inclusive strategy that encompasses a range of identities and lived experiences."
"One of the great ironies of American democracy is that women have often been called on to protect it while being denied access to its most basic protections," Brown-Dean told The 19th in an email. "And now, in 2022, we see one of the most diverse cadres of women running for political office that cuts across race, ethnicity, gender identity, and class markers. Organizing around the preservation of democracy more broadly can connect that candidate diversity to the mobilization of women voters as a cohesive bloc."
The 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll does not find either party with the edge going into November. More than 7 in 10 Republicans and Democrats are enthusiastic about voting in this year's election. Thirty-eight percent of Americans say they would vote for the Republican candidate; 39 percent say they'd vote for the Democrat.
Black Americans are among the strongest supporters of the Democratic Party, and only two-thirds of Black women and Black men say they support President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Betty Moyers, 69, said that democracy is not working so well for her. She thought Americans had settled many things during her lifetime, particularly around progress around issues of race and gender.
But the self-described "die-hard Democrat," who grew up on a farm in Tennessee, was raised by parents who "were Republican back when Republicans had policies," she said. She says she's disappointed by what she sees happening in her country now and fears for the future of democracy.
"In my lifetime, I have never felt this way," Moyers said. "I have faith in the American people. We have got to figure out what is important,"
Moyers said she was "devastated" watching the congressional hearings on the January 6 attack on the Capitol as the 2020 election was being certified. She is very motivated to vote this year on the issue of abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.
"I fought that battle, and I do not intend to fight it again," she said.
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