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Poll by Eos Grantee Shows Voters’ Concern about Poverty Issues

November 2007

As the economy falters, American voters increasingly want to learn how presidential candidates will address poverty issues, a new poll by Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity reveals. Spotlight—an Eos Foundation grantee devoted to increasing awareness of poverty during the presidential campaign—released a study earlier this year showing that media coverage of poverty issues in the context of the presidential race skyrocketed by 145% from 2003 to 2007. But even that doesn’t begin to tap the public’s growing interest in the subject. Spotlight’s new poll of 1000 likely voters shows that 56%—including a majority of both Republicans and Democrats—felt the media still haven’t focused enough attention on the subject. Similarly, 51.4% voters want to hear more information directly from the presidential candidates about how they would fight poverty. The poll has a +/- 3.1% margin of error.

Besides the nation’s growing economic woes, pollsters McLaughlin and Associates speculate that a growing evangelical focus on poverty, as well as increased mentions by the presidential candidates themselves, may be fueling the public’s appetite. Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have both unveiled anti-poverty proposals, and Obama responded to detailed questions from Spotlight about how he would combat economic inequality. Former presidential candidate John Edwards also made poverty issues a cornerstone of his campaign and frequently criticized the gap—widening into what he called “Two Americas”—between the rich and poor.

As Spotlight’s Tom Freedman told Politico.com, “…the political conventional wisdom that voters don’t care about this issue is wrong.”

Read more about the poll and Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity.

 

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