Building on the findings from our earlier taxonomic survey and cluster analysis with Rebuild Democracy and the Center for Economic Policy Research, in our quest to understand how trust is driving voters in the current political context we honed in on two promising clusters for this next phase:
‘Diverse Community-Focused’ voters & ‘Alienated Populists’ both hold strong progressive views as well as have high levels of alienation. Voters in these clusters are disappointed with perceived government inaction on issues they care about, depressing their turnout potential.
We set out to understand how to rebuild trust with voters like these, in an environment where forces are at work to reinforce a low-trust environment. Here we present our findings and our messaging toolkit.
Groundbreaking new research into the beliefs and attitudes driving distrust among the American electorate has revealed four new core dimensions of trust – trust in government, fairness, traditional efficacy, and anomie – that are predictive of voters’ political views and values.
We found that Americans’ trust in institutions isn’t just dramatically declining – it is diverging. Tribes of trust now exist in the electorate, and in order to win elections, campaigns will need to understand what drives voters’ trust.
This survey of 1,000 registered voters nationwide, with oversamples of 300 young voters and 300 independent voters across key swing states, was conducted in April on behalf of the Center for Economic Policy Research. You can read more about the findings here.
A new poll from the bipartisan polling team Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting provides fresh evidence that voters across the political spectrum solidly support a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and tough oversight of Wall Street. This support reaches across blue and red states, and is, in some cases, higher in the battleground states of this year's presidential election.
This Spring, LRP worked with MurMur to conduct a Remesh group among Gen Z voters. The group revealed 1) how economic-focused young voters are – not just about issues like student debt, but housing, inflation, and healthcare; and 2) how important personal testimonials are in conveying the accomplishments of elected leaders. Young voters have to know how policies are personally making their lives better. Otherwise it is just empty words, disconnected from their own reality. We are excited to share our key findings with you here:
2) Murmur substack article featuring a Murmur podcast with Celinda Lake
A new national bipartisan survey conducted for the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER) asked women ages 25+ how they feel about their health and financial security—and what public policies they support to improve Medicare and Medicaid and make it easier for people to get care at home.
Along with Public Opinion Strategies, we found more than half of women ages 25+ are not financially secure and roughly half are "uncertain" or "worried" about health costs later in life. Across party, women strongly support solutions that can help.
Read more here about What Women Say about their health and financial challenges—and what they want Congress to do about it.
https://www.ncoa.org/page/what-women-say-about-their-finances
As the Supreme Court prepares to hear Johnson v. Grants Pass, the National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC), in partnership with the Housing Narrative Lab, has released critical survey findings on the state of public opinion surrounding the case and related attempts to arrest, fine and ticket people who experience unsheltered homelessness. Conducted by LRP, survey findings show adults nationwide connect the high costs of housing with homelessness, 7 in 10 (72%) reject jailing, ticketing, and fining people for sleeping outside if there's no shelter available, and instead support popular solutions like repurposing available spaces that stand empty, like office buildings or hotels/motels, into housing options that are affordable instead
Americans Support Banning Junk Fees Across the State, Political, and Demographic Divides, New Economic Liberties and Lake Research Polling Reveals.
The latest Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service Battleground Civility Poll highlights that an alarming number of Americans across party lines share a deepening fear that our very system of government is under threat, but for very different reasons. The poll, conducted by Republican pollsters from Tarrance Group and Democrat pollsters from Lake Research Partners, placed an emphasis on voter attitudes toward threats to democracy.
A national survey of likely women voters conducted this month for MomsRising finds that the vast majority of mom and women voters strongly agree that:
• a few parents should not be able to ban books from school libraries,
• schools should be able to provide honest, accurate, age-appropriate history education including slavery and the civil rights movement,
• schools should be able to provide medically accurate, unbiased, inclusive and age-appropriate sex education,
• schools play an important supporting role in children’s social and emotional development, and
• children learn best when they trust their teachers and feel safe to be themselves, including LGBTQIA+ and transgender students.
New polling from Lake Research Partners for Ms. Magazine/Feminist Majority Foundation highlights the issues driving women’s voting decisions. Key findings include:
New data from the bipartisan polling team Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting shows that voters across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support the ongoing mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to regulate the financial industry and protect consumers. These new findings are consistent with over 10 years of opinion research demonstrating strong public support for the agency’s role and work.
The latest GU Politics Battleground Civility Poll shows that voters want politicians who are willing to compromise to get things done. Voters, however, also feel their values are under attack in our current politics.
This poll was conducted by Democratic pollsters Celinda Lake, Daniel Gotoff, Sandra Markowitz, McCauley Pugh, Ronan Ferrentino, and Lina Tate of Lake Research Partners and Ed Goeas and Brian Nienaber of the Tarrance Group among 800 registered, likely voters nationwide between September 10-14, 2023.
Links to Research Findings:
A new bipartisan poll conducted for four Alzheimer's patient advocacy groups – the LEAD Coalition, the Alliance for Aging Research, the Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation, and UsAgainstAlzheimer's – by Lake Research Partners and Public Opinion Strategies found that voters hold as a core value that Medicare beneficiaries should have access to FDA-approved medicines for Alzheimer's, just as they do for other diseases. Voters do not understand why Medicare would restrict access to Alzheimer's therapies when it covers every other FDA-approved drug for every other disease. Americans strongly support requiring Medicare to cover FDA-approved treatments for the disease.
In partnership with Public Opinion Strategies, Lake Research Partners conducted two surveys of women ages 25 and older, commissioned by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER). These surveys find that half of American women are struggling financially today, making it very difficult to plan for a secure retirement. Across demographic and party lines, women express strong bipartisan support for federal policy solutions that could help.
New polling from Lake Research Partners for the National Partnership for Women & Families highlights moms’ thoughts about family-friendly workplace policies and equal pay. Key findings include:
• Moms give businesses low grades on providing family-friendly policies and think businesses are doing little or nothing to address time off for employees to care for themselves and their families.
• Fair pay is the most important consideration in moms’ decisions to stay with an employer, followed by benefits and flexible work schedules.
• Nearly three-quarters of moms say it is very important that women are paid the same amount as men for the same job.
New bipartisan messaging research released by Fountain House as part of its Healing Minds, Powering Communities campaign shows voters are concerned about the stigma associated with mental illness and the persistent lack of affordable and accessible treatment and that an overwhelming majority of voters across partisan lines support increasing funding for programs that address serious mental illness (SMI). Learn more about the research findings here.
After 20+ years of research with the Barbara Lee Family Foundation on voters' perceptions of women governors, for the first time ever we are looking at lieutenant governors.
SECOND IN COMMAND finds that most voters believe lieutenant governors are qualified to serve as governor—and that the office prepares women candidates to serve as governor. While there is little knowledge about the roles a lieutenant governor may play, there is an enormous opportunity to define the role and meet the needs of constituents.
Link: https://www.barbaraleefoundation.org/research/second-in-command/
The Joyce Foundation recently commissioned a qualitative research project from Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group to better understand Minnesotans’ attitudes toward public safety.
The study focused on assessing existing support for alternative and co-responder crisis response, categorizing incidents requiring first responders, and identifying strong messaging narratives that resonate with Minnesotans.
The findings of the survey showed strong support for investing in additional approaches to traditional policing, including the use of mental health professionals, trained social workers, and community-based violence intervention specialists. You may access the research through the following links:
Just weeks after the fall’s midterm elections, voters feel strongly that the country’s democracy is threatened by rising violent behavior and one-sided news coverage. While concerns vary across partisanship, there is clear support for rejecting violence and embracing civility and respect.
The latest GU Politics Battleground Civility Poll of 800 registered voters was conducted by Democratic pollsters Celinda Lake, Daniel Gotoff, Sandra Markowitz, McCauley Pugh, and Ronan Ferrentino of Lake Research Partners and Republican pollster and former GU Politics Fellow Ed Goeas and Brian Nienaber of the Tarrance Group, between November 12-17, 2022.
A new Ms. magazine and Feminist Majority Foundation poll by Lake Research Partners across nine battleground states finds that among young women voters, ages 18-29, abortion and women’s rights are the most important and highly motivating issues in determining their vote. And among women voters of all ages in battleground states, abortion and women’s rights are tied with inflation and rising prices in determining their votes.
The full analysis of the survey of young voters in battleground states can be found here.
The full analysis of all likely voters in battleground states can be found here.
We will win this election if we convince voters we care about their economic well-being. Read the full article here.
As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, research shows us that people across the country are angry, engaged, and in strong opposition to attempts to further ban abortion. This document contains recommendations on (click here for report):
These recommendations are based on public opinion research conducted in the summer of 2022 by HIT Strategies and Lake Research Partners, with input from the COMS Project and an advisory group of leaders from the reproductive health, rights, and justice (RHRJ) field.
Women Voters Age 50 and Over Will Decide the Balance of Power in the Next Election
Click links below for analysis.
New Research from AARP Demonstrates Power of Overlooked Voters
She's the Difference: Survey of Likely Voters Age 50 and Older
In recent research conducted on behalf of the Project On Government Oversight we found that voters in the electoral battleground states of Michigan and Ohio show broad agreement about the importance of addressing government corruption, as well as agreement over the anti-corruption measures most likely to be effective. Across the political spectrum, voters in Michigan and Ohio think removing corrupt officials and banning them from working in public office in the future would be the most effective measure, followed by enforcing rules that make it hard for government officials to personally benefit from their policy decisions, preventing government officials from trading on inside knowledge, and increasing transparency in political spending.
You can read the full report and corresponding analysis posted on POGO’s website.
We are in a moment of incredible political realignment, where old conventional wisdom is giving way to new possibilities, alliances are shifting, and reapportionment is underway, all while information is highly fractured and targeted but unvetted. In this period of transition, women make up key swing and base constituencies, especially for the 2022 midterm elections and for policy campaigns. We are also seeing significant shifts in the policies that women are willing to support due to the experience and impact of the pandemic – although women continue to be polarized based on partisanship, support for a number of components in President Biden’s recovery package are remarkably bipartisan.
We at Lake Research Partners are proud to be committed to understanding the continuously evolving interests of different cohorts of women across the country and amplifying their voices through our research. Beginning in April 2021, we are conducting a periodic tracker poll to measure where women stand on pressing issues, what is happening in their lives, and how opinions change leading up to the 2022 election cycle. The poll is administered online and consists of a base sample of 1,000 adult women nationwide, with oversamples of 100 African American, Latina, Asian American/Pacific Islander American, and Indigenous/Native American women. Our inaugural tracker poll was conducted between April 6th – April 12th, 2021. The margin of error is +/-3.1%.
Please click here to read our full memo!
Click below for select Toplines:
A recently completed nationwide survey of likely 2022 voters, including an oversample of voters in states with competitive U.S. Senate elections, reveals strong majorities of voters support the federal government providing funds for state and local governments to implement community-based intervention services aimed at reducing gun violence.
The country agrees politicians should compromise to find solutions and get things done on a wide range of issues and challenges, where the voters themselves register strong support for action, across partisan lines.
In recent research conducted on behalf of the Project On Government Oversight we found that voters in the electoral battleground states of Michigan and Ohio show broad agreement about the importance of addressing government corruption, as well as agreement over the anti-corruption measures most likely to be effective. Across the political spectrum, voters in Michigan and Ohio think removing corrupt officials and banning them from working in public office in the future would be the most effective measure, followed by enforcing rules that make it hard for government officials to personally benefit from their policy decisions, preventing government officials from trading on inside knowledge, and increasing transparency in political spending.
You can read the full report and corresponding analysis posted on POGO’s website.
A recently completed nationwide survey of likely 2022 voters, including an oversample of voters in states with competitive U.S. Senate elections, reveals strong majorities of voters support the federal government providing funds for state and local governments to implement community-based intervention services aimed at reducing gun violence.
The country agrees politicians should compromise to find solutions and get things done on a wide range of issues and challenges, where the voters themselves register strong support for action, across partisan lines.
We are in a moment of incredible political realignment, where old conventional wisdom is giving way to new possibilities, alliances are shifting, and reapportionment is underway, all while information is highly fractured and targeted but unvetted. In this period of transition, women make up key swing and base constituencies, especially for the 2022 midterm elections and for policy campaigns. We are also seeing significant shifts in the policies that women are willing to support due to the experience and impact of the pandemic – although women continue to be polarized based on partisanship, support for a number of components in President Biden’s recovery package are remarkably bipartisan.
We at Lake Research Partners are proud to be committed to understanding the continuously evolving interests of different cohorts of women across the country and amplifying their voices through our research. Beginning in April 2021, we are conducting a periodic tracker poll to measure where women stand on pressing issues, what is happening in their lives, and how opinions change leading up to the 2022 election cycle. The poll is administered online and consists of a base sample of 1,000 adult women nationwide, with oversamples of 100 African American, Latina, Asian American/Pacific Islander American, and Indigenous/Native American women. Our inaugural tracker poll was conducted between April 6th – April 12th, 2021. The margin of error is +/-3.1%.
Please click here to read our full memo!
Click below for select Toplines:
We don’t do conventional market research for corporate branding or products. Our clients, whether from the worlds of politics, philanthropy, advocacy, government, labor, or business, are seeking insights and strategy to advance a social purpose and a progressive, inclusive future.
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