Democrats Support a Just Green New Deal
Non-white and low-income voters are particularly supportive of new clean energy spending toward historically disadvantaged communities
By Julian Brave NoiseCat, Sean McElwee, and John Ray
Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change. The goal of a Green New Deal is to address the scope of the climate crisis while also focusing on the frontline communities which are affected by climate change, particularly communities of color.
Here, we focus on a sample of Democratic primary voters and on the implementation of the Green New Deal. Specifically, we ask likely Democratic primary voters and caucus-goers (“Democratic voters,” let’s call them) if they would support specifically targeting clean energy spending toward low-income communities. The proposal would require that 40 percent of spending on clean energy would be targeted towards these communities.
The goal of this new spending policy would be to acknowledge and address these inequities. As such, it is probably not surprising to learn that low-income voters and non-white voters are particularly supportive of the policy.
Democratic voters, including moderates, support targeting clean energy spending toward low-income communities. The policy has particularly high support among lower-income Democratic voters and non-white voters. Net favorability for a just spending requirement is positive across the board for Democratic voters.
Before we asked voters whether they supported or opposed such a requirement, we first posed arguments that Democrats have made both for and against such an idea. In a sample of likely Democratic primary voters and caucus-goers, presenting arguments both of which are supported by Democrats helps inform voters’ choices without necessarily implying that supporting or opposing the item would go against their partisanship. As Data for Progress has repeatedly found, despite perhaps surprisingly high levels of support for the Green New Deal among Republicans and outright positive support among Independents, partisanship is a strong cue in the domain of climate policy. As such, framing the opposing statements as both coming from Democrats informs voters while remaining sensitive to this fact.
Specifically, we asked,
Some Democrats have proposed a plan that would require 40 percent of clean energy spending to be targeted towards low-income communities.
(rotate)
Democrats supporting this proposal say that communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately affected by corporate polluters and climate change, and that any new environmental reforms must take on historical injustices.
Democrats opposing this proposal say that we need to focus on maximizing emissions reductions, and that too broad of a legislative focus will make it difficult to pass bipartisan climate legislation.
Do you [support or oppose] requiring that 40 percent of clean energy spending to be targeted towards low-income communities?
As is traditional on our surveys, the two opposing statements were randomly rotated across the sample, and voters were randomly assigned to be asked whether they “supported or oppose” or “opposed or supported” such a policy.
A clear majority of Democratic voters support targeting 40 percent of clean energy towards low-income communities. Fully 62 percent of Democrats support this policy, compared to just 19 percent who oppose it. As the following chart suggests, this includes clear majorities both of moderate and more liberal Democrats.
In addition to ideology, controlling for other factors, we find that support for this policy is slightly higher for nonwhite voters, though white voters overwhelmingly support justice in clean energy spending. About 58 percent of whites, 65 percent of Latinos, and 74 percent of Black Democratic voters report they are in favor of justice in clean energy spending.
Among Black and Latino voters, the share who report they are simply “unsure” how they feel is higher than the share who say they oppose. That said, the share of voters overall who report they are unsure is typical for a policy item of this kind.
Additionally, controlling for other factors (including race), we find that support for the policy is higher among voters whose household income is below $60,000 per year. About 66 percent of voters earning under $30,000 per year and about 68 percent of voters earning between $30,000 and $60,000 support the policy. That said, Democratic voters across the board support justice in clean energy spending.
This is significant because the policy explicitly works to ameliorate past injustices against lower-income communities and against communities of color. We find clear support for clean energy justice among Democrats, including among groups not explicitly targeted by the new spending it would entail.
This finding adds to the growing body of public opinion research carried out by Data for Progress on the Green New Deal. In past work, we have found that the spending details associated with policy has significant effects on how voters regard policies. Here we find that, even when given information suggesting that new clean energy spending will be used specifically for justice towards underserved and disadvantaged communities, voters are prepared to support it.
Julian Brave NoiseCat is the Vice President of Policy & Strategy at Data for Progress
Sean McElwee (@SeanMcElwee) is a co-founder and the Executive Director of Data for Progress.
John Ray (@johnlray) is a senior political analyst at YouGov Blue