Democrats won majorities in the House and Senate this year by promising a sweeping series of reforms. And now, a new poll indicates widespread support for that agenda.
Gun control, the ERA, nonpartisan redistricting, increasing the minimum wage and decriminalizing marijuana. All of these reform efforts have widespread public support.
That’s according to a new poll from Christopher Newport University, where Quentin Kidd is director of the Wason Center for Public Policy.
“A lot of these issues that we polled would not have been viable in a Virginia of eight years ago, ten years ago," Kidd explains. "And I think support for these issues is reflective of the changing political dynamics in Virginia that have brought Democrats into a majority.”
The poll also found that Governor Ralph Northam has recovered from the crisis he suffered earlier this year when an old yearbook page emerged showing the governor next to images of a man in blackface and another man in a KKK robe.
“It’s bounced back up above 50%, which we found in a poll that we did three months ago from the low that we polled back in April of 40%," says Kidd. "So it looks like the governor has recovered from the blackface scandal.”
One issue where public opinion isn’t as strong: giving local governments authority to remove Confederate monuments. A slight majority, 51%, supported that idea.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
