New POLLING shows Senate and Presidential battleground voters strongly support guaranteed child care
and support for the policy provides an advantage to candidates
A new survey of likely general election voters in Senate battleground states conducted with an oversample of Black and Hispanic voters finds that voters overwhelmingly support a guaranteed child care policy. Furthermore, the survey indicates that supporting guaranteed child care is a political winner.
Support for guaranteed child care provides a boost for Democrats on the ballot. While Democrats narrowly trail on the generic vote for Senate (45% Democrat/47% Republican), when the race is re-framed as between a Democrat who supports the federal government fully and permanently funding guaranteed child care for every family and a Republican who opposes it, the Democrat leads by 5-points – a +7-point increase on the margin. When the ballot is reframed in this manner, a supportive Democrat makes the strongest gains with young voters (age 18-44), especially young women, Hispanic voters, and those who are affected by child care.
Key findings:
An agenda that includes care policies and abortion is incredibly popular – more popular than protecting reproductive rights alone. Three-quarters of voters start out supportive of a care + abortion agenda that includes paid family and medical leave, affordable and accessible child care, and access to safe and legal abortion, and support remains stable throughout the survey. Support for the combined care and abortion policies is also stronger than support for abortion alone.
Furthermore, a combined agenda provides an even greater political advantage to a supportive Democrat over abortion access alone. When the generic ballot is defined as a Democrat who supports the care + abortion agenda versus a Republican who opposes, the Democrat leads by 27-points, a 23-point increase on the margin from the generic ballot. And this increase is greater than the increase with a Democrat who supports abortion alone (a 19-point increase on the margin).
Voters believe that a care + abortion agenda will have a positive impact on jobs, the economy, and workers, especially parents in the workforce. More than seven in ten voters believe the combined agenda will have a positive impact on parents in the workforce and nearly seven in ten believe it will have a positive impact on workers in general. A clear majority of voters believe it will have a positive impact on the overall economy and jobs.
A narrative about freedom – “all people deserve the freedom to decide what is best for them and their families” – is the strongest way to make the case for the care + abortion agenda. Emphasizing the need for a healthy workforce is also effective. This holds true both among voters overall, as well as across a number of key groups such as women and swing voters.