Poll conducted by the Tarrance Group shows voters will blame Republicans over Democrats by 2 to 1 margin if the federal government shuts down

WASHINGTON / ACCESSWIRE / September 21, 2023 / The Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP) and Women2Women released a new poll with nationally recognized research firm The Tarrance Group. With nationwide polling of 500 voters, the data reveals surprising new insights about voter sentiment regarding the threat of a federal government shutdown at the end of the month.

The poll was conducted September 16-18, 2023. Some key findings include:

• Overall economic outlook is not positive among voters, with 61% of voters describing the U.S. economy as either in a slight downside, approaching a recession, already in a recession, or in a depression.
• If Congressional elections were held today, 43% of voters would choose a Democrat, 41% would choose a Republican, leaving 16% of voters undecided.
• Over half of voters (53%) believe that the federal budget and current federal spending levels are too high, 34% of which strongly believe this.
• The federal funding fight is not resonating among young voters, with almost half (40%) of voters ages 18-34 unaware of the possibility of government shutdown.
• Passing a continuing resolution (CR) at current spending levels in order to avoid a shutdown has voters split - with 50% in favor (26% of which are strongly in favor), 40% opposed (30% of which are strongly opposed), and 10% unsure. Younger generations ages 18-34 are the strongest in favor of passing a CR at 56%.
• A plurality of voters think that Republicans will be the most to blame if the government shuts down at 38% - when compared to 17% blaming President Biden, 5% blaming the national economy and inflation, 19% blaming Democrats in Congress, 1% blaming Donald Trump, and 16% believing the blame should be placed on some combination of the above. This sentiment holds especially true among voters ages 65 and up, with 46% believing that Republicans would be most at fault.
• When looking at proposed shutdown resolutions, two-thirds (67%) of voters are in favor of passing a CR to keep the government open for the next 30 days while Congress negotiates a long-term deal; 65% would support Congress passing a CR that imposes greater accountability on Ukraine spending; 57% would support Congress passing a CR that would cut spending across the board, except for veterans or the military.
• Just about half of voters (49%) are more likely to vote to re-elect their member of Congress if they voted in favor of a CR to fund the federal government and avoid a shutdown.

**Topline information can be found here, and full crosstabs can be found here.

METHODOLOGY: This survey was fielded from September 16-18, 2023 among a sample of N=500 2024 voters nationwide. Respondents were contacted through telephone sample providers and completed through telephone interviews. The sample was matched to the L2 voter file to verify respondents' voter registration status, and was weighted to population benchmarks for likely voters nationwide on gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, and Census region. Calculated the way it would be for a random sample and adjusted to incorporate the effect of weighting, the margin of sampling error is ± 4.5 percentage points. This survey was conducted by The Tarrance Group on behalf of the Republican Main Street Partnership.

ABOUT RMSP: The Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP) encompasses a broad alliance of conservative, governing Republicans, including more than 85 sitting members in Congress. Led by President and CEO Sarah Chamberlain, RMSP is dedicated to working to enact common-sense legislation that gets things done for the American people. RMSP's members run and win in the most highly contested swing districts in the country.

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For more information or to set up an interview with Sarah, please contact Elizabeth Aucamp at elizabeth@javelindc.com or (704) 249-1430.

Contact Information:

Elizabeth Aucamp
Account Executive
elizabeth@javelindc.com
(704) 249-1430

SOURCE: Republican Main Street Partnership