Protests for Racial Justice Gain Broad Support
A majority of voters agree that protesters are doing the right thing, and support is growing among moderate and persuadable voters.
However, Democratic base and persuadable voters express differing priorities for protest outcomes.
Research Goals
On June 1st, Avalanche fielded a listening survey to 4,892 respondents in battleground states to understand how voters were relating to the protests for racial justice ignited by the death of George Floyd. Ten days later, on June 11th, we went back into the field to understand how beliefs were shifting, and to understand why.
Methodology
An Avalanche Listening Survey combines open and closed-ended questions. Open-ended questions provide rich data sets that allow us to analyze beliefs, values, and emotions related to an issue. Closed-ended questions provide clarity and comparability with existing research. We work with industry leading data collection partners to gather targeted samples of respondents.
Key Insights
68%
of voters in battleground states believe protesters are completely or somewhat right
72%
of voters with mixed feelings say the protesters are completely or somewhat right
83%
of voters leaning Biden say the protesters are completely or somewhat right
59%
of voters leaning Trump say the protesters are completely or somewhat right
Support for protests is growing, especially among persuadable voters.
Between June 1st - 11th, support across persuadable voter segments grew significantly, even among those leaning Trump.
+25%
more Lean Trump voters agree that protesters are at least somewhat right.
+9%
more voters with Mixed Feelings about candidates agree that protesters are completely right.
+14%
more Lean Biden voters agree that protesters are completely right.
Are protesters doing the right thing or wrong thing?
Between June 1st - 11th, protests gained substantial support, even among those leaning towards voting for Trump.
Three themes characterize what voters see as the most important aspect of the protests.
32%
Protestors Exercising Rights Peacefully: Characterized by expressing beliefs that Americans have the right to protest, that protest should be peaceful, or by a critique of current protest tactics
30%
Ending Police Brutality: Characterized by references to police violence, systemic racism, and personal experiences with law enforcement, as exemplars of inequality and injustice
33%
Creating Opportunity: Characterized by references to more general values and beliefs relating to equality and justice, the desire for equal treatment for all, and the empathetic recognition that racism is real
What is the most important aspect of the protests?
Voters identified three overarching themes: creating opportunity for all, ending police brutality and exercising rights peacefully
Opportunity for all: cite core beliefs and values of equality and justice and empathy for those who are harmed
Ending police brutality: cite police violence, systemic racism, and personal experience
Protesters Exercising Rights Peacefully: cite both the rights of protesters to express their views peacefully, and critique of perceived violence
Which aspect of protests is most important varies by approval of protests.
Ending police brutality is strongly correlated with protest agreement.
40%
of those who completely agree with protests prioritize ending police brutality
9%
of those who completely disagree with protests prioritize ending police brutality
Protestors exercising rights peacefully is correlated with less agreement with protests.
25%
of those who completely agree with protests prioritize protesters exercising their rights peacefully
42%
of those who completely disagree with protests prioritize protesters exercising their rights peacefully
Creating opportunity to thrive for all people regardless of race stays relatively stable across segments.
32%
of those who completely agree with protests prioritize creating opportunity to thrive for all people regardless of race
32%
of those who completely disagree with protests prioritize creating opportunity to thrive for all people regardless of race
What is the most important aspect of the protests?
Those who strongly agree with the protests are more likely to cite ending police brutality, those who disagree are more likely to cite the need for protests to be peaceful, equal proportion of all segments cite the need to create opportunity for all people to thrive regardless of race.
Views vary by 2020 candidate support.
Police brutality is most cited by Biden supporters.
Equal opportunity is most cited by persuadable voters.
Among persuadable voters who are undecided or who are leaning towards either candidate, the aspect of the protests that they are most likely to prioritize is the need to create equal opportunity for all people regardless of race.
The aspects of the protests that are most important to voters varies in relationship to who the voters are planning to vote for in 2020:
Biden Base: most likely to cite ending police brutality
Lean Biden: relatively more likely to cite equal opportunity
Mixed: less likely to cite police and more likely to cite need to be peaceful
Lean Trump: most likely to cite equal opportunity
Trump Base: most likely to cite need to be peaceful and least likely to cite police brutality