Voters Support New Clean Technology and Promoting American Clean Tech Around the World
By Sean McElwee, John Ray, and Julian Brave NoiseCat
Recently, Data for Progress polled[1] a large expenditure of federal revenue (two trillion dollars) to invest in new technology while promoting the adoption of this technology around the world.
We asked respondents,
Would you [support or oppose] a policy investing up to $2 trillion in government revenue over the next ten years developing new clean manufacturing technology to promote the adoption of American goods around the world?
An outright majority of voters support this policy, including 58 percent of all voters. Only about a quarter of voters oppose the policy with the rest being undecided.
A clear majority of Democrats, 73 percent, support the policy, followed by a narrower majority of Independents, at 52 percent outright support for the policy. Republicans on net oppose the policy by a 37-44 margin.
While opposing the policy on net, this is actually a fairly close margin for Republicans on a policy that includes significant new government expenditures. As Data for Progress has found in other analyses, there is some evidence that populist economic policies are a viable route for Democrats to appeal to conservative and swing voters. Promoting American manufacturing around the world likely falls into this category.
Among Democrats and Independents, support for this policy is partially driven by men, who support new clean manufacturing investments at higher rates than women.[2] The scope of our data does not adjudicate whether this is because manufacturing is a traditionally male-dominated field. About 8 percent more Democratic men than women support the policy, as do about 8 percent more Independent men.
Support extends to a majority of male Independents (55 percent) and a plurality of women Independents (42 percent). On net, clean manufacturing investments and promotion are popular across each group. Clean manufacturing has net +65 support among all Democratic voters, and +26 support among Independents. Net support for clean manufacturing is net positive among Democratic men and women as well as Independent men and women. And interestingly Republican women are statistically split on this item, by a 37-37 margin.
Among Independent voters, support for clean manufacturing is highest among suburbanites. In our survey, we asked voters to report whether they lived in a “city,” “suburban area,” “town,” “rural area,” or “other.” We aggregated these as “urban” for city-area voters, “suburban” for voters who reported they lived in a suburban area or town, and “rural” for voters who said they lived in a rural area or “other.”
Clean manufacturing technology promises clear benefits to jobs and the economy, which is reflected in the popular support for the policy. The partisan divide, while the strongest predictor of public opinion, is less strong on this issue than it is on some others. Voters clearly support new government investments in clean manufacturing and using that funding to promote the adoption of American technologies around the world.
Sean McElwee (@SeanMcElwee) is a Co-Founder and the Executive Director of Data for Progress.
John Ray John Ray (@johnlray) is a Senior Political Analyst at YouGov Blue.
Julian Brave NoiseCat (@jnoisecat) is Vice President of Policy & Strategy at Data for Progress.
[1] On behalf of Data for Progress, YouGov Blue conducted a survey of US registered voters using YouGov's online panel. The survey fielded from 2019-10-19 to 2019-10-21. The survey included 1159 US registered voters and was weighted to be representative of the population by age, race/ethnicity, sex, education, US Census region, and 2016 US Presidential vote choice.
[2] This result holds when controlling for other factors such as age, race/ethnicity, education, income, party identification, employment status, and geography.