06-15-2019, 06:03 PM
Quote:A significant minority of Republican voters favors “progressive” economic policies typically associated with Democrats, according to new polling done by the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. Many of these Republicans voted for President Trump in 2016, but they’re less inclined than traditional Republicans to support Trump in 2020. Researchers asked nearly 7,000 voters their views on a variety of economic issues, such as raising the minimum wage, hiking taxes on the wealthy, cutting regulations and breaking up big banks. Democrats are largely united in support of policies that would exert more government influence over the economy and redistribute wealth. Republicans are more split. Higher-income Republicans generally favor less government and lower taxation. But lower-income Republicans are closer to Democratic positions on some key issues. Forty-five percent of Republicans earning $40,000 or less support raising taxes on people with incomes above $200,000, for instance. Just 23% of Republicans earning more than $80,000 support that. Forty-one percent of lower-income Republicans want to raise the minimum wage, compared with just 20% of higher-income Republicans.Trump could lose these “progressive” Republican voters