TikTok is a money machine, but voters on both sides don’t know if it’s worth it

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… Back in 2020, only two years after its global launch, TikTok said it had 100 million users in the United States. This week it announced the figure had climbed to 150 million. That figure represents about 45% of the 332 million men, women and children that make up the U.S. population — the exponential growth in less than five years — and a huge audience ready to tune into any online discussion. The company also says the app has been downloaded 210 million times in the United States.

But TikTok’s biggest difference from other social media is not remarkable audience growth, it is remarkable revenues. The young app is bringing in billions in ad dollars and giving some content creators the ability to earn income. …

Taken together, TikTok’s audience and revenue numbers suggest a pretty strong constituency for the platform, but a look at some recent polling suggests there might be some room for congressional action on it. The partisan differences of opinion on TikTok are somewhat muted. CONTINUED

Dante Chinni, NBC News

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Trump’s beer track advantage over Ron DeSantis

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pre-campaign campaign for president has hit the skids — particularly among key blocs of voters he’ll need to dethrone former President Donald Trump next year.

Polls show Trump dominating his likely primary competitor among GOP voters in the so-called “beer track” — a shorthand for the cultural and socioeconomic characteristics of the bloc of voters with lower incomes and levels of educational attainment. While DeSantis is still the preferred candidate of high-income voters and those with college degrees, he is showing signs of bleeding there, too. In recent weeks, Trump’s numbers have been rising among all Republicans, including with GOP voters most skeptical of his candidacy in the so-called “wine track.” CONTINUED

Steven Shepard, Politico

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For many, their personal finances are a source of major stress

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Most adults say their financial situation is a source of stress, including 36% who say it is a major source of stress, as people experience increasing expenses and debt. These problems are especially acute in households with incomes under $50,000.

Six in 10 adults with household incomes under $50,000 describe their financial situation as poor and lack confidence in their ability to pay an unexpected medical expense or have enough retirement savings. About half cite their financial situation as a major source of stress.

Overall, 53% of the public describe their own financial situation as good and 47% say it is poor. But among those whose household income is under $50,000, 61% consider their finances in poor shape. Eighty percent of people with household incomes over $100,00 say their financial situation is good. CONTINUED

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

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How the public feels about the Silicon Valley Bank failure

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… The differences between the 2008 recession and the Silicon Valley Bank failure are significant. Namely, taxpayers’ money went to bailing out the banking industry in 2008, while insurance that banks pay is bankrolling depositors at failed institutions this time around, not taxpayers. Still, the government is stepping in yet again, and the role the government plays in financial systems is front and center.

How do Americans feel about this? What’s changed? Are people even paying attention to the Silicon Valley Banking crisis? In the five charts below, we explore how Americans are approaching the banking crisis and how opinions on government bailouts have changed in the past decade. CONTINUED

Clifford Young & Sarah Feldman, Ipsos

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How Working-Class White Voters Became the GOP’s Foundation

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The escalating confrontation between the parties over the federal budget rests on a fundamental paradox: The Republican majority in the House of Representatives is now more likely than Democrats to represent districts filled with older and lower-income voters who rely on the social programs that the GOP wants to cut. …

House Republicans, in their ongoing struggle with President Joe Biden over raising the debt ceiling, have signaled they will push for sweeping reductions in domestic social programs, likely including Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, the principal federal programs providing health care for working-age adults. And while House Republicans appear to have backed away from pursuing reductions in Social Security and Medicare, the conservative Republican Study Committee has set a long-term goal of cutting and partially privatizing both programs.

The fact that so many House Republicans feel safe advancing these proposals in districts with such extensive economic need testifies to the power of what I’ve called “the class inversion” in American politics: the growing tendency of voters to divide between the parties based on cultural attitudes, rather than class interests. CONTINUED

Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic

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Gen Z voters oppose TikTok ban, but worry about China’s influence

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A new poll studying the attitudes of younger American voters toward TikTok finds that Gen Z voters oppose banning TikTok while millennials support a prohibition, even as a majority of all these younger voters express concerns about China misusing the social media app.

Among registered voters aged 18 to 42, the survey found 46% support a ban on TikTok unless it’s sold to U.S. operators, while 38% oppose it. But the generations are split. Gen Z voters said they oppose a ban by a margin of 53% to 34%, while millennials said they support a ban by 49% to 34% margin.

The poll was conducted by pollster and author John Della Volpe, who studies the attitudes of young Americans, for his firm SocialSphere, Inc. CONTINUED

Sahil Kapur, NBC News

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