Focus group: Trump supporters like liberal proposals but still love Trump

[RandySF]

Some of President Trump's supporters in Sioux City, Iowa love liberal populist proposals. They just don't love the 2020 Democrats as the messengers.

Between the lines: A focus group of swing voters — all of whom voted for Trump in 2016 — strongly supported a student loan debt plan that would cancel up to $50,000 in student debt for people whose families make less than $100,000 per year. (That's Elizabeth Warren's proposal, though her name wasn't mentioned in the question.)

They also want to tax American corporations, specifically big banks, to pay for Trump's infrastructure plans.
This was the main takeaway from the Engagious/FPG focus group of swing voters I watched last week, which included 11 voters who supported Barack Obama and then Trump. All but one said they would re-elect Trump if it were him versus Hillary Clinton again.

Why it matters: These voters aren't familiar with the two main liberal proposals (Medicare for All and the Green New Deal), and they aren't excited by any Democrats running for president. This could give Trump an opportunity to tailor his economic message in Iowa for voters who want more focus on student loan debt and infrastructure.

But it also suggests that Warren's own policies are more popular with these voters than she is, given that the voters were skeptical of the entire Democratic field.



https://www.axios.com/focus-group-trump-supporters-like-liberal-proposals-but-still-love-trump-66518863-c821-49ea-bab5-226c0b013de1.html

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. If they're stupid enough to support Trump, they've already proven they'll

swallow any bullshit he sells.

[iamateacher]

2. It's a cult of personality

He'll lie, and they will vote for him

[Auggie]

3. Eleven people are not a barometer of public opinion. I'm not taking this seriously.

[RandySF]

4. At your own peril

Campaigns do focus groups all the time.

[bitterross]

5. Explain to me how these 11 people are statistically significant?

I had enough stats and quant in college to know you must pick a sample that is representative of the population.

Eleven people who were selected because they were already Trump voters doesn't seem to me that they made the grade for being representative of anything.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. Assuming they were randomly chosen wouldn't they be representative of Trump voters?

[IluvPitties]

11. A focus group is a qualitative research method

You are looking at a focus group through a quantitative lens. This is actually a pretty large focus group. What the people running the focus group need to do to corroborate their findings is to run a couple of more with a similar sample of individuals and see if similar ideas are consistent with their initial findings.

[Auggie]

12. Give me more data then -- qualitative and quantitative. And include a geographical mix.

If it needs to be confined it to red congressional districts, so be it. I'm not taking the word of eleven people in Sioux City.

On edit: I've seen my share of focus groups from the other side of the window. My feelings about them are very mixed.

[MarvinGardens]

6. Why'd they ask about Hillary?

She's not running.

[msongs]

7. republicans prefer republican candidates. how much $ did axios waste on this? nt

[2naSalit]

9. Well they should take their cultist

lovefest and get a fucking room with him then. They just need to remember that someone will probably be pissed by the end of it all.

[doc03]

10. I don't get it, I thought Trump was nothing but a con man

30 years ago. How in the hell can people be stupid enough to believe him?