Iowa Voters Support the Progressive Agenda

By Luke Kastel

Data for Progress has surveyed likely Iowa Democratic presidential caucus-goers on their support of a number of progressive policy and process proposals including: Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, court expansion, and ending the filibuster. We found clear support for all of them.

The poll was conducted from December 18 through December 28, 2019, using the Volunteer-Initiated Text-to-Mobile Survey (VITMS) method, a text-to-web instrument. The poll included 695 likely caucus-goers, and has a margin of error of +/- 4.6 percent, with a 95 percent confidence interval for questions involving all respondents. The results are presented below.

Medicare for All

We found that likely caucus-goers, similar to Democrats nationally, overwhelmingly support Medicare for All, with 78% of them backing the policy and only 15% opposing. Support varies little by gender, education or age. This is roughly in line with what we’ve found nationally; for instance we recently found Democrats nationally supporting a specific version of Medicare for All with a specific financing plan 81% to 7%. 

Green New Deal

Support for the Green New Deal was similar in level to support for Medicare for All, at 83%. However, support for the Green New Deal was more intense, considerably moreso, with 57 percent of likely caucus-goers saying they strongly support it. Similarly to Medicare for All, support is overwhelming among all demographic indicators. Again, this is similar to national support levels. In March, we found that 82% of Democrats nationally support the Green New Deal.

Drug Price Negotiation

Democratic caucus-goers fall heavily in support of allowing the federal government to negotiate pharmaceutical prices. Eighty-five percent support it to only 8% who oppose, a level that is roughly maintained across all demographics.

Government Production of Insulin

Allowing the government to produce insulin had the highest of any question we asked, with 86% in support and 7% in opposition. 

Supreme Court Expansion

The process questions we tested both had majority support, but less overwhelmingly so than the policy questions. We included arguments commonly presented for both process questions. Expanding the court was supported by 59% of respondents and opposed by 27%, still a clear majority.

Ending the Filibuster

Filibuster reform, our other process question, was the only question of the six where Democrats didn’t have unambiguous feelings on the matter. 45% support its abolition, 29% oppose it, and a full 26% don’t know. That last figure is by far the highest of the “Don’t know”s for these six questions, and unlike in the other five questions, where the amount of “strong” responses were larger than or equal to the “somewhat” responses for each side of the issue, each side has more “somewhat” responses than “strong” responses for both the supporting and opposing sides. Only 31% of respondents picked a “strong” response for this issue.

Methodology:

Between December 18th and December 28th, 2019, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 695 likely voters matched to the voter file in the State of Iowa using a text-to-web survey from respondents from a commercial voter file. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ± 4.6 percent.

Question Wording:

Court Expansion - “Would you support or oppose the next Democratic President adding seats to the Supreme Court? Proponents say that this is necessary to restore balance by reducing the influence of small number of ultra-conservative justices and that without this measure many positive reforms will be impossible to enact. Opponents say that this creates a dangerous standard and only further politicizes the court and that the intended effects will be short term as the Republicans will just add Justices next time a Republican is President.  Do you support or oppose the next Democratic President adding seats to the Supreme Court?”

Medicare for All - “Would you support or oppose improving and expanding Medicare so that it becomes the primary insurer for all Americans?”

Green New Deal - “Would you support or oppose a “Green New Deal” to invest trillions of dollars in clean-energy jobs and infrastructure over the next ten years to fight climate change?”

Pharma Negotiation - “Would you support or oppose allowing the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies about the prices of all prescription drugs?”

Insulin - “Would you support or oppose the government manufacturing a generic version of insulin and selling it at an affordable rate?”

Filibuster - “Would you support or oppose the next Democratic Senate Majority Leader ending the filibuster?  Proponents say that the filibuster results in government gridlock by allowing a small minority to strike down popular legislation to fight climate change and expand healthcare access. Opponents say that the filibuster ensures that the minority party can block legislation (such as Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act), and that repealing the filibuster may hurt Democrats in the long run by removing a valuable tool for the minority party.  Do you support or oppose the next Democratic Senate Majority Leader ending the filibuster?”