Biden, seeking a second term in office, plans to build on his record of low unemployment and job creation.
Washington:
Voters’ anger over threats to the stagnant US economy and abortion rights is fueling Democratic President Joe Biden, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, but voters are receptive to a range of culture-war issues on which His Republican rival is campaigning.
Republicans fighting for their party’s nomination to challenge President Biden in 2024, led by former President Donald Trump and including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have called for public school teaching on immigration, gender and sexuality and transgender athletes in youth sports. Emphasis is placed on issues such as
The poll showed that while voters appear to be confident on some of these issues, they are increasingly finding fault with Republicans for their efforts to restrict abortion.
President Biden, 80, is seeking a second term in office, and has indicated he plans to largely follow on his economic record — particularly low unemployment and public investment in job creation, which he refers to as “Bidenomics.” They say.
A significant portion of voters, 36%, said they expected their personal financial situation to improve over the next year: “Looking ahead a year from now, do you expect your personal financial situation to be much stronger, somewhat strong, roughly the same, somewhat weaker, or much weaker than it is now?” This is compared to a total of 20% who expect it to be weak. Another 38% said they expected it to be roughly the same and the rest said they didn’t know. Optimists outnumber pessimists among Democrats, Republicans and independents.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll collected online responses from 4,414 US adults July 11-17 and had a credibility interval, the margin of accuracy, of about 2 percentage points.
“Slowing inflation and the looming prospect of a recession could deprive Republicans of their most powerful argument against President Biden and the Democrats going into the election,” said Jacob Rubashkin, an independent analyst at Inside Elections in Washington.
President Biden leads Mr. Trump by 37% to 35% in the hypothetical contest, with the remaining 28% saying they weren’t sure who to choose or would vote for someone else or neither.
Concerns over the loss of abortion rights helped Democrats in last year’s congressional elections, and polls showed a majority of voters oppose presidential candidates who support stricter abortion restrictions.
About 73% of independents said they were less likely to support a presidential candidate who supports laws that ban or severely restrict access to abortion, while 27% said they were more likely. .
A 72% majority of suburban white women – seen by many political strategists as a key demographic – said they were less likely to support an anti-abortion candidate.
Abortion has already been given a prominent role in ads in battleground states by the Democratic National Committee and several political fundraising committees supporting President Biden.
All candidates running for the Republican nomination support some form of process capping, with Mr. DeSantis among those who favor the most restrictive measures.
Mr DeSantis recently signed a bill in Florida that bans the practice at six weeks of pregnancy. Both he and Mr Trump supported the US Supreme Court’s decision last year to end the nationwide right to abortion.
immigration concerns
Respondents expressed uneasiness over immigration.
About 48% of respondents said they agreed with the statement that immigration is making life harder for Native Americans, while 37% disagreed and the rest were not sure. The views of independents generally reflect those of the general population.
Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis have taken hard-right stances on immigration and border security, while President Biden’s administration has tried to find a middle ground between securing the border and accommodating people with asylum claims.
gender and sexuality
Mr. DeSantis has based much of his campaign on “parents’ rights” issues — opposing gender identity education to public school students and the participation of transgender girls in school sports.
About 50% of respondents said they disagreed with the statement that issues related to gender, sexuality and gender identity should be taught in schools, while 36% who agreed with the statement and 14% who were not sure.
Republicans were strongly against teaching gender issues in public schools, with 76% opposed, 20% in favor and the rest undecided. Democratic support was not as solid, with 62% in favor, 28% opposed and the rest undecided. Independents had a lower verdict, with 49% against teaching gender issues, 27% in support and 24% undecided.
Nearly half of respondents disagreed with the statement that transgender athletes should be able to participate in children’s sports, while 32% agreed and 16% were not sure.
Nearly 57% of independents were against children of transgender people participating in sports, compared to 77% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats.
Abortion is somewhat more important in the minds of voters, with 78% of respondents citing the issue as important. Seventy percent described gender issues being taught in schools in a similar way, and 61% valued the issue of transgender athletes in children’s sports.
Analyst Rubashkin said the relative stability of the economy could be one reason why Republicans like Mr. DeSantis are turning more and more to cultural issues to try to attract voters who might turn to Democrats or Republicans. .
“These are the issues where Republicans believe they vote better,” he said, but added that “there is less evidence to suggest that voters will prioritize those issues at the ballot box over the economy and abortion.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV Staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)