Delawareans continue to back progressive agenda, elected officials

NOVEMBER 1, 2018―Delaware residents overwhelmingly back a progressive agenda as well as the state's Congressional delegation on the Democratic side of the aisle, according to a pollfrom the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication.

Legalizing marijuana continues to enjoy clear majority support, with 61% in favor of such a measure and 33% against―results similar to those found in a 2016 poll. Three in four Delawareans favor laws protecting transgender students from discrimination. And a clear majority of Delawareans favor Medicare-for-all, with 68% in favor of a national health plan, or Medicare-for-all, where any American could get their insurance from a single government plan if they so choose.

For most of those polled, a candidate being over the age of 70 isn't something that would influence their vote. And that result is reflected in their views of U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, who is 71 and has a 66% favorability rating heading into the final weeks of his reelection campaign.

U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is also looking for another term, has a favorability rating of 55%. Both Carper, who is taking on Republican Rob Arlett, and Blunt Rochester, who is running against Republican Scott Walker, enjoy big leads. U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, who won't be on the ballot until 2020, has a 57% favorability rating, while Gov. John Carney enjoys a rating of 63%. State Treasurer Ken Simpler, who is running for reelection, and Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long both have net favorability ratings, but neither is well known to Delawareans: 43% of those polled couldn't rate Hall-Long, and 53% had no opinion of Simpler.

"The poll's results show that most Delawareans are satisfied with their state's Democratic leadership heading into the 2018 midterms," Professor Paul Brewer said. "But the findings also suggest many residents would be open to bolder progressive steps on public policy." 

The candidates vying for Senate (Carper and Arlett) and the House seat (Blunt Rochester, Walker) took part in debates on October 17 at Mitchell Hall.

The University of Delaware Center for Political Communication's 2018 Delaware Statewide Voter Survey was funded by funded by the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication (CPC) with support from the College of Arts and Sciences. The study was supervised by the Center for Political Communication's Research Director, Paul Brewer, a professor in the Departments of Communication and Political Science & International Relations.

The study was fielded by Abt Associates and obtained telephone interviews with a representative sample of 995 adults living in Delaware, including 908 registered voters. A total of 348 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone and 647 were interviewed on a cell phone. Interviewing was conducted from September 11-17, 2018 in English. Samples were drawn from both landline and cell phone random digit dialed (RDD) frames and a list of Delaware registered voters. Both the landline and cell phone RDD samples were provided by Survey Sampling International.

Statistical results are weighted to match the population parameters of the adult population in Delaware. The margin of sampling error for the sample of registered voters is ± 3.7 percentage points. Overall, the response rate (AAPOR RR3) was 14.4% for the landline RDD sample, 3.6% for the cell RDD sample, 5.8% for landline numbers from the RV sample and 6.7% for cell numbers from the RV sample. 

Please contact Paul Brewer at (302) 831-7771 for more details about the survey's methodology.