VOX Populi Issue 24

Common Ground in the Battlegrounds: 10 Issue Surveys in Six Swing States and Nationwide Reveal Over Fifty Policy Positions With Bipartisan Support

The Program for Public Consultation (PPC) at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy recently completed a series of ten issue surveys in six battleground states and nationwide. The Swing Six Issue Survey series examined 66 federal policy issues, finding that majorities of Republicans and Democrats agree on 55 of them. 

“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,” noted Steven Kull, director of PPC and president of Voice of the People.

The public consultation surveys, conducted by PPC over the past five months, included 600 respondents in the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, along with approximately 1,200 adults nationally. PPC partnered with news outlets in battleground states, which reported on the findings of each survey, as did other news organizations. 

PPC’s report on these findings, Common Ground in the Battlegrounds, was released on October 29th during a webinar that featured a briefing by Steven Kull and a lively panel discussion with Nevada Independent D.C. Correspondent Gabby Birenbaum and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Page Editor Brandon McGinley.   

“If our thoughts about policy are circumscribed by the rhetoric that people think is effective during campaign season, then it’s much more difficult to discover those areas where … there is mutual interest … even if there’s not complete agreement,” said McGinley. “If you drill down to the foundational principles and values they hold, they might actually be quite different, but even as they hold different first principles, at the level of policy, they converge.”

“I think what almost makes me sad about seeing polling like this is when people go through intensive policy-making simulations – when they’re presented with smart arguments for and against, you find they have a lot of mutual interests,” said Birenbaum. “But oftentimes, if you’re not paying attention until September, and you’re seeing ads and you’re in your information bubble, it can be hard to make sure that everybody has that set of mutually agreed upon facts in order to come to these common ground conclusions. It’s hopeful, but it also says something about our political system.”

To view the Common Ground in the Battlegrounds webinar, click here. 

Also, on October 23rd, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette hosted a webinar with PPC focused on the Swing Six Issue Survey series’ findings in Pennsylvania. McGinley led a discussion with Steven Kull that focused on the extensive common ground among Pennsylvanians, with both pointing out the desire for government action to address cost of living issues and some of the most challenging problems facing the nation. To view the Pennsylvania webinar, Common Ground in the Battleground, click here. 

To view the findings of these ten issue surveys, click below:

Cost of Living:

• Healthcare costs
• Affordable Housing
• Families and Children

Other Issues: 

• Abortion and Birth Control
• International Trade
• Immigration
• Energy and the Environment 
• International Engagement
• Social Security
• Congressional Stock Trading

John Oliver Highlights PPC Immigration Survey On “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”

 PPC’s Swing Six Issue Survey on immigration was highlighted during a recent episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” During a piece on mass deportation, Oliver cited the survey and the findings that, when people are given the chance to address the undocumented population via a path to citizenship or mass deportation, and both are explained in detail, the path to citizenship proposal is more popular, even among Republicans. Overall, 58% favored a path to citizenship, including a majority of Democrats (75%), with more Republicans choosing path to citizenship than mass deportation (45% vs 40%).  Path to citizenship was preferred by overall majorities in every swing state (55-65%). 

Nationally, 26% of respondents favored mass deportation. Thus a bipartisan majority–73% overall (Republicans 58%, Democrats 85%)–does not favor mass deportation, preferring a path to citizenship or neither option.

For more on the immigration survey findings, visit www.publicconsultation.org/ss-immigration/ss-im-im.

Media Coverage of Swing Six Surveys

PPC was proud to partner with swing state media outlets, including the The Nevada Independent, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and PennLive. These and other media organizations were extraordinarily helpful in giving the public a greater voice on public policy during the election period.  Click here to see the articles. 

VOP’s President Steven Kull Appointed to Open Government Federal Advisory Committee 

Steven Kull, Voice of the People’s president, was recently appointed to the Open Government Federal Advisory Committee. The Open Government Federal Advisory Committee serves as an advisory body to the GSA Administrator on federal open government and public engagement efforts. This includes efforts to engage the public in the regulatory process, to further public participation, and to make the U.S. government more open and accountable to its people and one that truly serves and listens to its people.

Speak Up For Good Government Highlights Media Literacy, Democracy Efforts

In their recent newsletter, Speak Up for Good Government, highlighted a few important tools for this election season, including media literacy programs, films on what election officials do and how to spot false information. Speak Up for Good Government is an organization that aims to improve the effectiveness of the federal government by reducing legislative gridlock and empower the public to impact and inform legislation. 

Allan Cohn, Speak Up for Good Government Founder, said he shares these tools to “help voters to sort through the information and misinformation we are being inundated with.” Cohn said he felt it was also important to highlight “the heroic efforts of election officials to ensure we have a fair and free election.”

The tools Speak Up For Good Government highlighted include:

Poynter’s “Find Facts Fast” media literacy course

• Info from Temple University on how to identify and avoid false information
• Issue One – Faces of Democracy
• Two short films that depict the work of election officials
  • The Officials
  • No Time to Fail
    

For more information on Speak Up For Good Government, or to view their latest newsletter, visit www.speakupgoodgov.com. 

Data Deep Dive: Affordable Housing

Housing has been a hot topic in the national discourse over the past few years, as rising costs impact the lives of many households. PPC’s recent survey on housing found support for policies aimed at curbing these costs.

One of those policy proposals would provide low and middle income first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 to help cover the down payment on a home, with more assistance for those whose parents never owned a home. The proposal was favored by a large majority nationwide (67%), including a very large majority of Democrats (84%), and a small majority of Republicans (52%).

A further analysis of the data found that support does not differ substantially based on whether the person would be able to receive the assistance or not – because they already own a home or because they are in a high-income household. Among those who already own a home, a large majority of two-thirds favor the policy, only a few percentage points less than those who rent. Among high-income households, while there is less support for the proposal than low-income households, there is still large majority support of around six-in-ten.

Respondents who own their home offered various reasons for supporting down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers: 

“This is wonderful – my mom was a single mom and never owned a home,” one said. “Neither did my grandparents. This would be a blessing that I might have a chance to own a home someday and qualify for the $25,000 down…”

“If my husband hadn’t been a veteran, we never would have been able to buy a home,” another reported. “This is needed.”

“Food and shelter should be the first guarantee by the government for just being alive in America,” one responded. “We have enough wealth where we don’t need to suffer and stress like that. It is a start that they are giving people $25,000 for the down payment…”

Across all the housing policies asked about in the survey, there is no substantial variation between homeowners and renters, or low and high-income households, for any of the housing policies asked about, even those specifically about increasing the supply of rental housing. Majorities of each group favored each of the policies. The lowest level of support was most commonly among those who live in a home that is owned free and clear without any mortgage, but a majority of at least six-in-ten supported each policy.

According to a 2024 report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, housing costs rose “at an annual rate of 6.4% in February.” The report found that the US home price index is now 47% higher than in 2020. Renters are not much better off, with the report finding that rent has increased 26% nationwide since early 2020.