The coronavirus is a public health crisis that requires collective effort and sacrifice to slow its spread. We are no safer, or healthier, than the least protected among us. If we leave vulnerable populations exposed to the virus, we are only accelerating its spread. And that applies to people confined in jails and prisons perhaps more than anyone else.
Read MoreFederal transportation policy is broken. American communities are suffering as a result.
The U.S. transportation system is both an enormous source of carbon emissions and a major contributor to inequality. Access to safe, affordable, and reliable transportation is a fundamental right, yet most Americans are denied this right because of misguided federal transportation policies and funding priorities.
Read MoreWe find popular support among likely voters for a package of proposals that will mitigate the effects of coronavirus, including free access to testing and vaccines, access to comprehensive care without premiums, copays, deductibles, or other costs, and paid sick and family leave.
Read MoreThe global economy is hurting and conditions are likely to worsen substantially. The spread of COVID-19 has reached global pandemic status—if it is not there already. And increasing disruption is triggering underlying weaknesses in the global and domestic US economies. Besides the terrible short-term costs of illness and recession, we must worry about a fossil fueled reboot where “retaliatory emissions” would result from a return to oil, gas, and coal-fueled growth. Ongoing carbon pollution threatens runaway climate chaos.
Read MoreDiscussions at work between coworkers provide an important mechanism through which workers can learn about, and act on, their labor rights. It is often only though these conversations, for instance, that a female worker might learn that she is getting paid less than men doing comparable work, or that managers are treating certain classes of workers differently from others. Indeed, in a prominent example Lilly Ledbetter worked for years alongside other male coworkers without knowing that she was systematically underpaid relative to the men. In this way, coworker discussions can help reveal violations of labor rights and spur action to address those violations. Coworker discussions can also help disseminate formal procedures and informal norms within an organization, as well as strategies for addressing common problems faced by workers in an organization. And workplace discussions are a necessary first step for further collective action—from forming unions to organizing work actions like walk outs or strikes.
Read MoreOn March 3rd Democrats across more than a dozen states will go to the polls in an event dubbed Super Tuesday. More than 1,300 delegates, or nearly one-third of the total, will be in play.
As part of Data for Progress’s polling this Democratic primary season, we have asked questions not only about the current state of the race but also about support for progressive policies among likely Democratic primary voters. Here, we present our results for support for Medicare for All in a host of Super Tuesday states. Specifically, we asked likely Democratic primary voters,
“Would you support or oppose replacing private health insurance with a single government plan for everyone, sometimes called a ‘Medicare for All’ plan?”
Read MoreThe three days between South Carolina and Super Tuesday have been perhaps the most eventful of the race. Billionaire Tom Steyer, Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar each dropped out of the race, with the latter two throwing their support behind Joe Biden. These new polls show the state of the race before Super Tuesday. A tighter race with only two candidates poised for delegates nearly everywhere.
Read MoreOn March 3rd Democrats across more than a dozen states will go to the polls in an event dubbed Super Tuesday. More than 1,300 delegates, or nearly one-third of the total, will be in play.
As part of Data for Progress’s polling this Democratic primary season we have asked questions not only about the current state of the race but also about support for progressive policies among primary voters. Here, we present our results for support for a Green New Deal (GND) in a host of Super Tuesday states.
Read MoreA Green New Deal Will Allow American Farming Communities to Thrive in the 21st Century.
The Green New Deal is an ambitious plan to build broad-based prosperity and foster environmental justice while tackling the climate crisis. In a series of memos, Data for Progress is laying out a comprehensive vision for how a Green New Deal can transform food and agriculture systems in the United States. This particular memo focuses on the policies needed to support and nurture diversified, resilient food and farm markets for a thriving rural America.
Right now, America’s rural farm and food communities are in crisis. In the past 40 years, 50 percent of cattle operations, 90 percent of hog producers, and 80 percent of dairy farms have folded., The decimation of independent farms has distributed economic opportunity to a small number of players: Today, one percent of poultry and egg producers sell 99 percent of the industry’s output, and 17 percent of hog producers account for 96 percent of sales in the sector. Feedlots housing more than 32,000 cattle sell about 40 percent of finished cattle, and broadly, five percent of farms sell 75 percent of US agricultural products.
Read MoreThe U.S. is a world-leader in incarceration, and the unprecedented number of people serving decades-long and life sentences is a major reason for America’s outlier status. In recent years, despite an emerging bipartisan consensus around the need for criminal justice reform, there has been insufficient action to address people serving lengthy sentences who no longer pose a serious risk to public safety. To gauge popular support for policies that provide opportunities for people serving long prison terms to seek release and return to their communities, we conducted a national survey of American voters.
Our results indicate that such policies have overwhelming support among American voters, regardless of ideology or party affiliation. Voters believe that sentencing policies and practices should be closely connected to public safety—and that people who can be safely returned to their communities should not be warehoused because of excessive prison terms that waste taxpayer dollars and fail to reflect current values. Voters believe that people deserve a second chance, and they support sentence-review policies that can provide it.
Read MoreTomorrow, Nevada will caucus. The Nevada caucuses have been undercovered by the media, but the state is the first test of how Democrats perform with Democrats of color. We find that Senator Bernie Sanders is poised for a strong victory, with Warren, Biden and Warren all lumped together. Sanders has 35 percent of the vote.
However, as with climate change, some politicians are stepping forward with proposals to change the “take, make, and dispose” model of our modern, so-called “linear economies,” with zero-waste “circular economies.” Last year, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced the Zero Waste Act in the United States Congress and the European Commission adopted its ambitious Circular Economy Plan.
Read MoreOn January 3, the United States government assassinated Major General Qassim Suleimani, chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force. Suleimani was one of Iran’s top military commanders and helped shape the country’s foreign policy. In response to Suleimani’s killing, Iran retaliated against the United States, firing twenty-two missiles at an American base inside Iraq, injuring, but not killing, several American soldiers. A few days later, Iran accidentally shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, killing 176—an incident that would have been unlikely without Suleimani’s assassination. In the US, fear of war spiked, causing the Selective Service System’s website to briefly crash as concerns mounted that the draft may be reinstated.
Trump’s decision to kill Suleimani, while the most overt act of escalation, came on the heels of years of increased antagonism between the two nations. In a lengthy and well-reported piece, the New York Times details this long history, though a key event in this story was President Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. This agreement, the New York Times notes, was the “signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor Barack Obama,” and marked a partial thawing of relations between Iran and the US.
Read MoreThe release of greenhouse gases is not the only negative byproduct of modern economies; they also produce staggering amounts of waste. National Geographic estimates that there are 6.9 billion tonnes of plastic waste accumulated in the world, of which only 8.6% will ever be recycled. And that is just plastic waste. According to the LA Times the world produces 1.3 billion tons of all kinds of rubbish every single year. All of this waste kills wild animals, facilitates the spread of disease, and pollutes soil, air, and water.
However, as with climate change, some politicians are stepping forward with proposals to change the “take, make, and dispose” model of our modern, so-called “linear economies,” with zero-waste “circular economies.” Last year, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced the Zero Waste Act in the United States Congress and the European Commission adopted its ambitious Circular Economy Plan.
Read MoreData for Progress conducted a poll of 766 likely Nevada caucusgoers from 2/12/2020 through 2/15/2020. Likely caucusgoers were identified from the Nevada voter file and weighted to a likely electorate. Our margin of error is +/- 3.4 percent.
Read MoreThe NH Primary is an extremely close race between Senator Bernie Sanders and former mayor Pete Buttigieg, with Sanders in the lead by 2 points (28 percent to 26 percent).
Former Vice-President Joe Biden continues to show signs of extreme weakness, coming in at fifth place with 9 percent of the vote, behind Senator Elizabeth Warren (14 percent) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (13 percent).
Read MoreA fundamental change is taking place within the Democratic Party. For decades, Democrats feared being called “liberal,” let alone “progressive.” Indeed, it was President Bill Clinton who declared the “era of big government” to be over. Now, however, Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont and a self-professed democratic socialist, is a frontrunner in the Democratic Party’s presidential primary. And it’s not just Sanders. First-year Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rose to prominence following her endorsement by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and she has quickly become one of the most recognizable and popular figures in the party.
Read MoreOur poll shows a field in immense flux, but with Senator Bernie Sanders in the lead with 22 percent of the vote and Senator Elizabeth Warren in second with 19 percent of the vote. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg are tied in third with 18 percent of the vote. Senator Amy Klobuchar has 9 percent.
In a caucus, final delegate count is what really matters. After reallocation of delegates from candidates not clearing the viability threshold in each precinct, we estimate Sanders to have 28 percent of the vote, Warren to have 25 percent of the vote, Biden to have 24 percent of the vote and Buttigieg to have 22 percent of the vote.
Read MoreFor the first time in presidential primary history, 2020 candidates have competed for a progressive position on the sex trade. Several candidates have indicated their “openness to the decriminalization of sex work” while other candidates have expressed stances they describe as decriminalization but range in policy from Prohibition-style criminalization to regulated legalization. A recent resolution introduced by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley calls for decriminalization. Legislators, supported by community groups, have also introduced decriminalization bills in New York and D.C, and sex workers are mobilizing to do the same in cities and states across the country. There is growing consensus amongst civil rights, LGBTQ+ justice, labor, immigrant justice, and women’s groups that the decriminalization of sex work best protects people in the sex trades. A recent national poll by Data for Progress found an outright majority of all voters support decriminalizing sex work. Additionally, two-thirds of voters age 18-44 support decriminalization.
Read MoreTo understand how the issue of Medicare For All is viewed among South Carolina’s Democratic electorate, we fielded a survey of 767 likely voters in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary. The randomized survey was conducted from December 19 through December 29, 2019 for Medicare For All NOW. (For brevity, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents will be referred to as Democrats throughout this memo.) As outlined below, the poll finds strong support for Medicare for All, among all demographic groups in the Democratic primary electorate.
Read MoreThe Democratic primary election for the 2020 Senate nomination in Texas is in flux, with retired US Air Force Major MJ Hegar, labor organizer Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, and state Senator Royce West in the strongest positions for a possible runoff election. Hegar leads the pack, with 18 percent of the vote, followed by Tzintzún Ramirez and West, who are tied at 13 percent.
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