The Western Way released new polling results showing conservative voter attitudes towards energy, public lands, and COVID-19 economic recovery policies. The survey shows that western conservative voters place a high value on these issues when deciding whether or not to vote for a public official. 80 percent of respondents said that energy issues including domestic energy production, energy independence, and cleaner sources of production were important in their support of a candidate. 70 percent of respondents said that issues involving outdoors, public lands, waters and wildlife are important to them when choosing a candidate.
“It’s no surprise that western conservative voters favor pragmatic solutions to energy and public lands issues, and they take notice when elected officials work to offer these types of solutions,” said Greg Brophy, TWW’s Colorado State Director. “These survey results make clear that voters do not see a strong economy and a healthy environment as a binary choice, conservatives want both and expect their elected leaders to deliver.”
The online survey, conducted on behalf of The Western Way, questioned 750 conservative voters in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming from August 7-14, 2020. Among other top results, the survey asked respondents about their support for specific policy proposals with key findings including:
87% of western conservative voters would tell a candidate to support policies that encourage energy efficiency.
79% of western conservative voters would tell a candidate to support policies that prioritize lowest cost resources when building new sources of energy generation.
72% of western conservative voters would tell a candidate to support policies that encourage greater use of renewable energy, including setting long-term goals.
68% of western conservative voters would tell a candidate to support policies that fund research and development for new innovations in energy production such as nuclear, renewable, carbon capture, and battery storage.
Investment in infrastructure, rural economic development through energy projects and expansion of local advanced manufacturing jobs were all seen as important policies to help the economy rebound from COVID-19. Key findings include:
86% of respondents believed investments to upgrade and expand the country’s aging electrical infrastructure system to increase resiliency and reliability were important to the recovery.
85% of respondents said investment in public lands infrastructure, such as maintenance at national parks and wildlife migration corridors, to increase outdoor recreation access and drive the outdoor recreation economy were important.
77% of respondents believed it was important to support and grow their state’s advanced manufacturing industry by offering loans, credits, and other incentives to companies who create local manufacturing jobs.
The survey results can be found at: https://www.thewesternway.org/2020-polling