GOP Primary Voters Want Candidates to Embrace Cultural Issues, Poll Finds

[Valin]

The Daily Signal

Dan Hart

February 21, 2023

A new poll reveals that the overwhelming majority of Republican primary voters want future GOP presidential contenders to embrace hot-button issues like gender-transition procedures for minors and implementing restrictions on pornography.

The survey, conducted by OnMessage Inc., found that 93% of respondents want candidates to confront parental rights issues, including increased transparency with school curriculums and school activities. A full 76% also want candidates to ban gender-transition procedures for minors, such as surgeries to remove healthy organs, puberty-blocking drugs, and cross-sex hormones.

The poll also found 86% of respondents saying they are more likely to support a candidate that advocated for requiring age verification in order to access pornographic websites.

In response to issues that are considered less contentious, voters showed less enthusiasm, with 59% saying they want a candidate who will push for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and 50% saying they want an emphasis on supporting Ukraine through military aid. 

 

“The fight against the woke issues … that’s where the intensity really was,” said Jon Schweppe, director of policy and government affairs for the American Principles Project, during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” last week. “Ultimately, voters are looking for someone who’s going to defend the family, who’s going to fight the woke Left, who’s going to fight to stop these horrific sex-change procedures that are being performed on kids. … I think a Republican candidate who emerges from this presidential primary is going to have to be strong on all those issues.”

Perkins pointed to a particularly notable result in the survey indicating less-than-expected support for protecting women’s sports from men who “identify” as transgender “women.”

“Sixty-nine percent [who support prohibiting males from competing in girls sports], that’s still a good number. But what was surprising was that it’s even stronger when it comes to these sex-change medical procedures. People understand what’s going on and what really matters.”

Schweppe, whose organization released the results of the poll, concurred.

(Snip)