Voters Trust American Free Enterprise

Our June 17-22, 2023 survey for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was highlighted in Politico Influence:

FIRST IN PI — CHAMBER POLLING: BUTT OUT OF BUSINESS: As (most of) the Republican presidential hopefuls gear up for tomorrow night’s first primary debate, a new memo based on polling from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and shared exclusively with PI looks to discourage the use of corporate America as a political punching bag, arguing to candidates on both sides of the aisle that voters are not interested in political “micromanagement” of business decisions.

— “As we head into election season, the message is clear: Whether you are courting Republican, Democratic, or independent voters, candidates will be well served to run as pro-business candidates focused on solutions that support jobs and America’s free enterprise system,” Ashlee Rich Stephenson, the Chamber’s senior political strategist, writes in the memo.

— In a matchup between three hypothetical candidates — one who favors more disclosure of companies’ ESG efforts; one who favors government intervention to rescue companies from large “woke” investors; and one who “says that whether it comes from the right or the left, government micromanaging of business is a bad idea” — the last of those candidates received a plurality of 40 percent support, according to the Chamber’s memo. That included support from 53 percent of Republicans, 43 percent of independents and a little over a quarter of Democrats, which the memo says tracks with other recent polls of GOP voters.

— North Star Opinion Research polled 1,327 registered voters between June 17-22 for the Chamber. Among the survey’s other findings were that voters across the ideological spectrum agreed that businesses are a force for good. The poll found that Republican and independent voters trust even large companies more than the federal government, with Democrats rating the federal government only slightly more trustworthy. More than three quarters of Republicans polled and nearly 6 in 10 independents polled favored less government intervention in the economy.

To read the full column, please click here.

To read the Chamber’s memo highlighting the survey results, please click here.

Credit Card Fee Survey

Our firm recently conducted a national survey of voters regarding credit card fees.  Voters understand the importance of paying their credit card bills on time, understand the consequences of not doing so, and are wary of the trade-offs involved were late fees to be lowered.  Simply put, the current system is working well for consumers, and does not need any changes.

Key findings from the survey of 1,071 registered voters are:

1.   Consumers understand why it is important to pay their credit card bills on time, and are overwhelmingly likely to do so.  Eighty-five percent of voters have at least one credit card that they use for retail purchases.  Among these consumers, 99 percent say that it is important that they pay their credit card bill on time (with 91 percent saying it is “very important”), and  82 percent make all of their payments on time, 13 percent make one late payment per year, and just 5 percent make two or more late payments a year.

Ninety-six percent of these consumers are aware that not paying their credit card bill on time can result in a decrease in their credit score, 74 percent know that their bank charges a fee for late payments (in addition to interest), and 72 percent are aware of extra alerts their card issuer sends to help them avoid making late payments.

2.   By a 21-point margin, voters believe that a decrease in the penalty will result in more people making late payments.  Fifty-three percent of voters believe “people will be more likely to make late payments on their credit cards if the late payment penalty is reduced from $30 to $8, because $8 isn’t enough of a penalty to make people care about on-time payments,” while 32 percent think it will have no real effect on late payments, and 15 percent are unsure.

3.   Majorities of voters are concerned about the potential consequences of a cap on late fees.  Voters were asked about potential outcomes of capping late fees at $8 in the following questions:

“If effectively limiting late fees to $8 causes credit card companies to increase other fees like annual fees, balance transfer fees, cash advance fees, and foreign transaction fees, is that a good tradeoff?”  Voters say this is not a good tradeoff by 57 to 30 percent.

“If effectively limiting late fees to $8 causes credit card companies to eliminate or reduce benefits like cashback, discounts at restaurants, or airline miles, is that a good tradeoff?”  Voters say this is not a good tradeoff by 54 to 35 percent.

Methodology

This survey of 1,071 registered voters was conducted online February 28-March 1, 2023 by i-360 using their voter-matched panel.  Results were rake-weighted for state, gender, race/ethnicity, age, and education level to reflect current voter registration nationwide.

2022 Midterm Review

Republican Presidential Primary Survey

In the wake of a disappointing Republican performance in the 2022 midterm elections, Donald Trump has slipped to his lowest point since he emerged on the political scene almost eight years ago.  He remains a formidable force, to be sure, with a lock on approximately 30 percent of likely Republican primary and caucus voters nationally.  But a majority of the GOP is ready to move on, believing either that Trump cannot win in 2024, or that he is too focused on the past rather than the future.

To read the full memo, please click here.

To read the toplines, please click here.

2022 and 2024 Outlook

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