MEMO: Economic Populism Is Ascendant with Battleground State Voters
October 22, 2024
TO: Reporters + Political Thought Leaders
FROM: Mike Lux
RE: New Battleground Polling Memo on Antitrust Enforcement
A new poll done in presidential and senate battleground states by Lake Research Partners, in partnership with the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws (COSAL) and the American Antitrust Institute (AAI), shows that strong antitrust enforcement is wildly popular and that voters strongly support the idea that economically powerful corporations should be forcefully supervised by government regulators.
Big political donors from the tech industry and Wall Street have been attacking the strong antitrust enforcement and corporate regulatory policies of the Biden-Harris administration. This poll demonstrates that the public overwhelmingly thinks Big Tech and Wall Street are wrong in those demands.
Key Findings
The poll was conducted across Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. These are the seven presidential battleground states, plus Ohio, which has one of the biggest Senate races, plus three highly contested congressional races.
Voters are in a strongly economic populist mood, not liking economically powerful corporations, monopolistic corporations, and a great deal of corporate behavior. Even when we engaged the debate, using pro-corporate language versus arguments in favor of regulation, the pro-antitrust and anti-big business language is a big winner. Voters are very favorable toward laws against corporate monopolies (69% total favorable, 44% very favorable; 16% total unfavorable, 7% very unfavorable), class action lawsuits against corporate monopolies (66% total favorable, 38% very favorable; 16% total unfavorable, 6% very unfavorable), government lawsuits against corporate monopolies (65% total favorable, 39% very favorable; 18% total unfavorable, 9% very unfavorable), and government enforcement of antitrust laws (58% total favorable, 36% very favorable; 15% total unfavorable, 9% very unfavorable).
Strong favorability toward existing antitrust laws, government enforcement, and lawsuits against corporate monopolies is shared across demographics and particularly with non-college-educated voters and independents. Throughout this data, blue-collar non-college voters and independents show especially strong resonance with increasing antitrust enforcement and holding corporations that control our lives accountable.
Battleground voters are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports tougher government enforcement of antitrust laws against either “corporate monopolies” or “economically powerful corporations”. 57% say they are more likely to support the candidate tougher on monopolies, 34% say they are much more likely. When the phrase tested is “economically powerful corporations, the numbers barely change: 54% are more likely, while 37% are much more likely.
When talking about a candidate who supports tougher government enforcement of antitrust laws against corporate monopolies, majorities of non-college-educated voters and independents say they’d be more likely to support this candidate.
Non-college-educated voters are 54% more likely to support this candidate (incl. 32% much more likely), while only 11% would be less likely (incl. 4% much less likely).
Independent voters are also 54% more likely to support this candidate (incl. 34% much more likely), while 13% would be less likely (incl. 4% much less likely).
In an engaged debate where one side opposes the government increasing antitrust enforcement for punishing successful companies, increasing prices, and sending jobs overseas, versus a pro-antitrust enforcement message which accuses corporations of driving out competition, lowering wages, and giving CEO’s bonuses, the pro-enforcement message dominates.
Sixty-three percent of voters support the pro-enforcement side (46% strongly), while only 24% support the anti-enforcement side (13% strongly). A further 12% of voters are undecided and 2% don’t agree with either statement.
We see a similarly large chasm in support for the pro-enforcement side among non-college-educated and independent battleground voters—60% of non-college voters side with the pro-enforcement message (44% strongly) compared to 25% who favor the anti-enforcement side (14% strongly).
Independents show strong support for the pro-enforcement message with 64% agreeing with this message (46% strongly) and 25% favoring the anti-enforcement message (12% strongly).
Huge majorities of voters agree with statements that accuse massive corporations of having too much power over our lives and not being held accountable.
Sixty-seven percent of voters (49% strongly) agree that “One of the biggest problems facing America today is that a handful of corporations have too much power and government is doing too little to hold them accountable.”
Seventy-one percent of voters (56% strongly) agree that “Today, a handful of enormous, economically powerful corporations wield a massive amount of influence over the quality of our lives with almost no accountability or transparency to the public.”
Seventy-six percent of voters (59% strongly) agree that “Today, a handful of enormous, monopoly corporations wield a massive amount of influence over the quality of our lives with almost no accountability or transparency to the public.”
The vast majority of voters also favor expanding government prosecutions of corporations, allowing small businesses and customers to sue corporations, and the government requiring corporations to stop driving out competition.
Sixty-six percent favor (49% strongly favor) the government expanding prosecutions against wealthy corporations that engage in anti-competitive activities.
Seventy-eight percent favor (59% strongly favor) allowing small businesses and customers to bring lawsuits for damages against wealthy corporations that engage in anti-competitive activities.
Sixty-three percent favor (47% strongly) the government requiring corporate monopolies to stop driving out the competition.
Seventy-two percent favor (52% strongly) the government requiring economically powerful corporations to stop driving out the competition.
We tested two longer batteries in this survey, one with agree disagree statements and another with 0-10 ratings on economic hardship.
For the agree disagree statements, voters are clear in their distinction of pharmaceutical companies as one of the worst industries for competition and consumer practices (68% strongly agree) and feel similarly to cable and internet provider companies (55% strongly agree. They agree that monopolies hurt small businesses (59% strongly agree), customers (51% strongly agree), and that monopolies are anti-competitive (50% strongly agree). Voters also feel that small businesses can’t compete with monopolies (55% strongly agree) or multinational corporations (53% strongly agree).
For the 0-10 statement ratings on economic hardship, voters attribute hardship most intensely to corporations not paying what they owe in taxes (44% rated 10) monopoly corporations price gouging and hoarding wealth while they cut wages (43% rated 10) and corporations shipping jobs overseas (43% rated 10), followed by too many taxes on the middle class (42% rated 10), monopoly corporations rigging the rules (42% rated 10), and corporations agreeing in private to engage in price-fixing (39% rated 10).
A Populist Moment in American History
This is not the first poll, nor will it be the last, that shows Americans being fed up with corporate power, and their desire for politicians and government officials to stand up to corporate abuse of workers, consumers, and taxpayers. But the numbers in this poll demonstrate how decisively populist on economic issues the American public is right now.
We tested pro-big business language and arguments, and the pro-antitrust arguments won easily. We tested several different descriptions of corporate power and all of them received a strongly negative response. There is no doubt that voters are strongly against too much corporate power in the marketplace, in tax policy, and in the political system. They want Big Business to have much stronger oversight by government, and they want citizens -- whether small business owners, consumers, or workers -- to have more tools to hold these corporations accountable.
Another notable thing about this poll was that we didn’t have to explain concepts like monopoly power to people. The voters surveyed immediately understood, related to, and responded positively to different remedies for corporate power that they found problematic.
On the question of how big a problem voters thought corporate power was, they clearly saw it as a very big reason the economy isn’t working well for their families. The fact that, as noted above, two-thirds of voters, and almost half strongly, thought that “One of the biggest problems facing America today is that a handful of corporations have too much power and government is doing too little to hold them accountable” shows how big a deal this is to people.
For politicians and public officials, I have two strong recommendations based on this poll:
First, close your campaign on a populist frame. Voters are not in a mood for carefully constructed language and generic appeals that avoid the topic of corporate power. They want to hear you tell them specifically about the corporate villains you are willing to fight back against, stand up to, and hold accountable.
Second, once you get elected, don’t cozy up to powerful corporations. Appoint and support strong regulators and litigators who will fight corporate monopolies and anti-competitive behavior; who will lead the charge on behalf of consumers hurt by corporate collusion and price fixing; who will take the side of small businesses being crushed by big corporations with too much market power; and who will take the side of workers battling powerful employers who are trying to crush their right to unionize.
This poll tells a dramatic story of an American public sick to death of getting squeezed and pushed around by corporate behemoths. Savvy politicians will heed their call and take action.
