Americans’ Concerns About War in Ukraine: Wider Conflict, Possible U.S.-Russia Clash

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As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine enters its third month, most Americans say they support actions taken by the Biden administration in response to the Russian invasion, such as placing strict economic sanctions on Russia, sending military equipment and weapons to Ukraine and stationing large numbers of U.S. military forces in NATO countries near Ukraine.

In general, more U.S. adults approve (45%) than disapprove (34%) of the Biden’s administration’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. CONTINUED

Pew Research Center

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GOP’s midterm bet: Voters will care more about inflation than abortion

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One week after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would eliminate the constitutional right to abortion, Republican candidates and strategists are increasingly confident that such a decision would not seriously harm the GOP’s chances of regaining House and Senate majorities come November, as Democrats have suggested it might.

That belief is rooted in reams of polling, nearly all of it conducted before the leak, showing that economic challenges, particularly runaway inflation, are by far the most powerful force motivating voters this year, followed by crime and immigration — issues where Republicans believe they will have an enduring advantage. …

Republican National Committee officials have worked with Trump adviser and strategist Kellyanne Conway and others on the right to talk about messaging a decision such as Alito’s. Earlier this year, before the draft opinion leaked, Conway conducted a poll for the RNC that looked at various positions on abortion and how the party could win while not committing to banning the procedure entirely. “Engage and enrage,” Conway said in the presentation, calling on the party to attack Democrats for what she called liberal positions on abortion. CONTINUED

Mike DeBonis & Josh Dawsey, Washington Post

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Biden Approval Rating Near Lows As Inflation’s Bite Sharpens

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President Joe Biden’s approval rating slid back near February’s low point as inflation-related stress on household finances intensified, the May IBD/TIPP Poll finds. …

Including the full survey group, 39% of American adults approve how Biden is handling the presidency, and 47% disapprove. …

Approval of Biden’s economic policies returned to February’s low point, while plumbing new depths among independents. Now 47% of adults disapprove of Biden’s economic policies and 29% approve, vs. 44%-33% in April and 47%-32% in March. CONTINUED

Jed Graham, Investor’s Business Daily

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Immigration Attitudes and Conspiratorial Thinkers

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After years of heated rhetoric around immigration and its impacts, new data from an AP-NORC poll reveals that two-thirds of Americans feel the country’s diverse population makes the US stronger – less than 10% say diversity weakens the country.

Still, roughly one in three (32%) adults agree that a group of people is trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains. A similar share (29%) also express concern that an increase in immigration is leading to to native-born Americans losing economic, political, and cultural influence. These two key measures tap into the core arguments of Replacement Theory, a decades old idea, which posits that there is a group of powerful people in this country who are trying to permanently alter the culture and voting strength of native-born Americans by bringing in large groups of immigrants – the study indicates about one in five (17%) adults agree with both of these central tenants. CONTINUED

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

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1 in 3 fears immigrants influence US elections

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With anti-immigrant rhetoric bubbling over in the leadup to this year’s critical midterm elections, about 1 in 3 U.S. adults believes an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.

About 3 in 10 also worry that more immigration is causing U.S.-born Americans to lose their economic, political and cultural influence, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to fear a loss of influence because of immigration, 36% to 27%. CONTINUED

Anita Snow, Associated Press

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Americans now see both political parties as equally extreme

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Polling released on Friday by CNN indicates that Americans generally view the two main political parties as equivalently extreme in their views and policies. It’s a finding that’s interesting in the context of the recent debate over partisan extremism, prompted by Elon Musk’s meme on the subject — but also one that’s interesting for the question it raises about the inherent subjectivity of “extreme.”

If the extreme becomes normal, is it still extreme? CONTINUED

Philip Bump, Washington Post

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