New poll shows just how messy voters are on the biggest issues

Why did some voters support both President-elect Donald Trump and progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? 

It’s possible they backed candidates they thought would shake up the status quo. But these contradictory choices go beyond supporting candidates. The latest Civiqs poll for Daily Kos finds similar contradictions in voters’ policy views. 

The survey, which was fielded Dec. 7-10, shows that some registered voters aren’t quite buying all of Trump’s campaign pledges—perhaps because they hope he won’t follow through with them. And this is true even among Republicans. 

For example, 94% of Republican voters said they believe Trump will follow through on his promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. But a slightly smaller share of Republicans (82%) said he’ll move forward with imposing tariffs on imports from certain foreign countries. And an even smaller share—just 50% of Republicans—said they believe Trump will follow through on killing the Affordable Care Act, something he tried and failed to do during his first administration. 

These results could reflect voters’ vote preferences. After all, most policies that are viewed as being associated with one of the two major political parties (e.g., mass deportations as a Republican plan and expanding health care coverage as a Democratic one) have a decent amount of bipartisan support. 

A Gallup poll released on Monday, for instance, showed that a majority of Americans believe it’s the federal government’s responsibility to ensure all Americans have health care coverage. Meanwhile, the Civiqs/Daily Kos survey and a separate Gallup survey also found majority support for right-wing immigration policies.   

In other words, many Americans have messy policy views that don’t neatly align with either major political party.