Poll finds 60% of parents with kids under 18 would vote Republican

A new poll found that parents with children under the age of 18 are more likely to vote for a Republican candidate over a Democratic alternative.

The survey, produced by Marist Poll Services in partnership with NPR and PBS NewsHour, interviewed 1,300 registered voters between April 19-26 and presented them with a set of voting-related questions.

Respondents were asked: “if congressional elections were held today, which party’s candidate are you more likely to vote for in your district?”

The survey, published Saturday, found that 32% of parents with minors said they would vote for a Democratic candidate, 60% said Republican, 2% answered "other," and 5% said they were unsure.

When asked if they approve of the job Joe Biden is doing as president, 61% said they disapprove. Another 29% answered in favour of Biden, while 9% said they were unsure.

The findings further raise concerns for the Democratic Party as candidates from both sides of the aisle gear up for the 2022 congressional elections. In American midterm elections following a presidential election, the sitting president’s party usually takes a loss. But that regularity is likely to be compounded by another set of factors.

Topics like freedom of education and parental rights are likely to play a role in the upcoming election and draw in parental voters.

Earlier this year, Republican candidate Glenn Younkin won a gubernatorial race in the state of Virginia—a state that had voted overwhelmingly for Biden in 2020—after the race became largely about education. Younkin promised parents more control over the public school system, more oversight of curriculum materials, and parental decisions on vaccines and masking.

His opponent, former VA governor Terry McAuliffe, argued the opposite, suggesting that school districts best know how to educate children.

In a surprising upset, Younkin pulled ahead with the vote, taking the governorship with 50.61% of the vote. McAuliffe received 48.68% of the vote.

Issues of education and parental rights aren’t isolated to Virginia. Recent developments in Florida, like the state’s passage of the Parental Rights in Education bill, suggest the topic of parental empowerment is a growing, national issue. States like Iowa, Utah, Oklahoma, and others have also developed legislation along the lines of the Florida bill.

President Biden and the rest of the Democratic party have done a lackluster job of reassuring parents. Earlier this week, Biden addressed the issue of education by encouraging teachers to think of children as their own.

“You have heard me say it many times about our children, but it is true, they’re all our children. And the reason you are the teachers of the year is because you recognize that,” he said. “They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.”