Majority of Americans reject anti-trans bills, but support for this restriction is rising

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A majority of Americans oppose restrictions on LGBTQ+ people, yet the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll shows support for such laws is growing as many Republican state and local lawmakers pursue hundreds of bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights around the country. Forty-three percent of Americans now say they support laws that criminalize the act of providing gender-transition-related medical care to minors, according to the latest poll, marking a 15-percentage point increase since April 2021. About half of Americans — 54 percent — say they oppose such laws. …

Sixty-three percent of Americans say they think the federal government is responsible for guaranteeing that all Americans have health care coverage. That marks a significant rise from 47 percent in 2010 after the ACA went into effect. …

In the days surrounding a high-profile hearing where senators grilled the CEO of TikTok, seven out of 10 U.S. adults said the social media platform poses a threat to national security, including three out of 10 who felt it presents a major threat. Overall, a majority of Americans support a ban on TikTok. CONTINUED

Laura Santhanam, PBS NewsHour

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Many dissatisfied with the government’s spending priorities

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Asked generally about government spending, 60% of the public says the U.S. government is spending too much, 16% think it is spending too little and only 22% say it is spending the right amount.

There has been a significant increase in the perception that the U.S. government is spending too much since February 2020, when 37% said the government was overspending.

Most Republicans say the government is spending too much. Democrats, however, are more evenly split on their views on government spending. Older adults are more likely to think the government is overspending than younger adults. CONTINUED

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

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National survey finds continued general trend of lower public approval of work of U.S. Supreme Court

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A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey finds that 44% of adults approve of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing, while 56% disapprove. This is a slight decline from January, when 47% approved and 53% disapproved. Approval of the Court’s work hit a low of 38% in July 2022 and had risen gradually in every-other-month polling until this new poll. In all of these surveys since the middle of last year, approval has remained well below the 60% rate from July 2021. …

Partisan differences in approval of the Court are quite pronounced in the current poll, in contrast to minimal such differences as recently as July 2021. … A sharp increase in party polarization began in September 2021 before decreasing somewhat through March 2022. Polarization then increased in May 2022, following the leak of the draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, suggesting that the Court would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights. Partisan differences further intensified in July 2022, following the Court’s ruling in Dobbs overturning Roe. …

In the current survey, 33% favor the June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade, while 67% oppose that ruling. CONTINUED

Charles Franklin, Marquette Law School Poll

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We need another Republican primary-poll reality check

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Y’all are doing it again. Not all of you. But a good number of you are obsessing over Republican primary polls. What’s more, some of you are getting lured in by operatives pushing polls from a certain angle that doesn’t provide the full picture.

I know better than to hope for widespread sanity in reporting on the horse race, but I’m still going to put out the plea. Please think critically about the numbers and arguments presented, whether you’re a reporter being fed numbers by a partisan pollster that is shopping them around or you’re a reader consuming what that reporter wrote up. …

Also, please remember that no one votes for a long time. We are approaching the time when candidates need to decide whether they will run and donors must decide whom to support, but we are nowhere near the time when public opinion on the race is settled. CONTINUED

Natalie Jackson, National Journal

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How to Protect the Integrity of Survey Research: 12 Recommendations

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Science requires data, and survey research is one important means of gathering it. Surveys provide a scientific way of acquiring information that is used to inform policy decisions, guide political campaigns, clarify the needs of stakeholders, enhance customer service, help society understand itself, and improve the quality of life in the United States.

In recent years, concerns have been raised about growing rates of refusal to participate in surveys, as well as about inaccurate forecasts in high-profile elections, polls with contradictory findings, the declining trust in government and media institutions that fund such research, and skepticism fueled by political polarization. “Although polling is not irredeemably broken,” the authors of a new article write, “changes in technology and society create challenges that, if not addressed well, can threaten the quality of election polls and other important surveys on topics such as the economy.”

In this article, published today in the journal PNAS Nexus, 20 experts from diverse fields — including academia, science, government, nonprofits, and the private sector — offer a dozen recommendations to improve the accuracy and trustworthiness of surveys. CONTINUED

Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

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Harvard Youth Poll: 63% of young adults support stricter gun laws

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A national poll of America’s 18-to-29-year-olds conducted between March 13 and March 23, 2023 by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School indicates that more than three-in-five (63%) believe our gun laws should be stricter — including a majority of young people in college and not in college; a majority of young white, Black, Hispanic and Asian-Americans; a majority of males and females; and a majority of those living in urban areas, suburbs, and small towns. CONTINUED

Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School

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