While he rode many of his controversial “anti-woke” policies to reelection as governor of Florida in 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) may not be able to ride that reaction to success on the national level, according to a new poll.
A Wall Street Journal poll shows that DeSantis and other Republicans who have been pushing cultural issues are on the wrong track.
“Patriotism, religious faith, having children and other priorities that helped define the national character for generations are receding in importance to Americans.”
What has increased in importance to voters? Money.
A Democratic strategist called the poll’s results “eye-popping.”
The issue of money holds true for both Democrats and Republicans.
Culture war questions shown in the poll are especially bad news for the GOP.
Respondents were asked, “Which of these concerns you more about schools today?,” and 61% chose “some schools may ban books and censor topics that are educationally important.” Just 36% chose “some schools may teach books and topics that some students or their parents feel are inappropriate or offensive.”
Over half of the poll’s respondents (56%) said they have some or a great deal of confidence in public schools. Just one-third (33%) said very little or none.
With the preliminary stages of the 2024 campaign have only begun to take shape, it should be interesting to see if Republicans continued to use wedge issues based on social issues as their calling card. If they do, based on the Journal poll, they may wind up getting thrashed at the polls much the same way they did in 2020 and 2022.