… Most advocates of police defunding seek to redirect some police funds toward other social services, as opposed to completely disbanding the police. But that nuance may not be widely understood, and recent polls show that clear majorities oppose simply “defunding” the police.
Some observers worry the “defund” slogan could confuse voters and cost Democrats votes this fall. The Trump campaign has already spent millions running ads in battleground states falsely suggesting a Biden administration would abolish the police.
But is the defunding label less popular than alternatives? To answer these questions, we conducted two surveys in June and July with the polling firm Lucid, each one on a sample of about 1,000 U.S. adults that are nationally representative on age, gender, race/ethnicity and region. CONT.
Kyle Peyton, Paige E. Vaughn & Gregory A. Huber (Yale), Monkey Cage