Voters Want Biden to Adopt the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution
Recently, 46 senators sent a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to direct the archivist of the United States to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The ERA would enshrine equal justice under the law by explicitly prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. Congress approved the ERA and 38 states have ratified it, meeting the qualifications for it to be adopted as a constitutional amendment.
A new Data for Progress survey finds strong support among likely voters for Biden to instruct the archivist to publish the ERA and adopt it as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. Additionally, this action would cause a significant, positive shift among voters in terms of how they think Americans will look back on Biden’s presidency.
When voters are informed of the ERA and that it would “guarantee equal legal rights for all citizens regardless of their sex,” and also informed that some are saying Biden should instruct the archivist to publish the ERA and adopt it as the 28th Amendment, a strong majority of voters (61%) say they support Biden adopting the ERA as the 28th Amendment. This includes 87% of Democrats, 64% of Independents, and more than one-third of Republicans (35%).
When this sample of likely voters is initially asked how favorably or unfavorably they think Americans will look back on Biden's presidency, 38% say favorably and 61% say unfavorably. However, after being posed with the hypothetical of Biden adopting the ERA as the 28th Amendment, 50% of voters say Americans will look back on his presidency favorably and 43% say Americans will look back unfavorably. This represents a +30-point net increase in the percentage of voters who think Americans will look back on Biden’s presidency favorably.
These findings demonstrate that voters strongly support adopting the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, and that many of them would look more favorably at Biden’s presidency if he took action to do so.
Survey Methodology
From December 6 to 9, 2024, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,224 U.S. likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and recalled presidential vote. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error associated with the sample size is ±3 percentage points. Results for subgroups of the sample are subject to increased margins of error. Partisanship reflected in tabulations is based on self-identified party affiliation, not partisan registration. For more information please visit dataforprogress.org/our-methodology.