MW Guns, transgender rights, mail-in voting: The political issues Trump and Biden voters care about most when deciding where to live
By Aarthi Swaminathan
Voters are sharply divided over abortion, gender-affirming care for children and other issues, Redfin survey finds
It's not just about good schools and affordable homes - voters this election year say they are considering hot-button issues including abortion rights and gun control when deciding where they want to live.
That's according to a newly released survey of 2,995 homeowners and renters by real-estate brokerage Redfin $(RDFN)$ on how local laws and politics affect people's willingness to live in certain places.
The survey, conducted in February 2024, found that "Biden voters feel particularly strongly about living in a place where gender-affirming care is legal, while Trump voters feel strongly about living in a place without firm gun-control laws," Redfin said.
For instance, while 64% of respondents who plan to vote for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said they would prefer to not live in a place with strong gun-control laws, 36% of respondents who plan to vote for Democratic President Joe Biden said they would rather live in a place with strong gun laws, Redfin's survey found.
The survey also showed how closely contested the upcoming presidential election in November may be: Nearly 39% of respondents indicated that they expect to vote for Trump, Redfin said, while just over 39% indicated that they expect to vote for Biden. A little more than 22% said they did not plan to vote for either candidate.
With the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the constitutional protection of a woman's right to abortion services in 2022 and states diverging on gun policies, many house hunters are rethinking where they would prefer to live.
In fact, nearly one-third of real-estate agents said they had worked with buyers who had moved over the last 12 months mainly because of state or local laws, a separate December 2023 survey by Redfin found.
In the new survey, respondents were asked to rate their willingness to live in places with a range of characteristics - including whether the area has socioeconomic diversity, or whether local laws allow the discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in schools.
The Redfin survey captured responses about where people say they want to live based on their political affiliation, but it did not track whether those people moved, bought or sold houses because of politics or local laws.
Key issues raised by Biden and Trump voters
Gun control appears to be a key issue motivating Trump voters: A 64% majority of them indicated that they did not want to live in a place with strong gun-control laws.
Additionally, 53% said they did not want to live in a place where recreational weed is legal, and 52% said they didn't want to live somewhere that has easy access to mail-in voting.
Only 30% of people who said they plan to vote for Trump also said they want to live in a place where gender-affirming care for children is completely legal, the survey found.
On the other side of the political spectrum, more than half (58%) of Biden voters said they wanted to live in an area where abortion is legal, and the same percentage said they wanted to live somewhere with laws ensuring equality based on gender and sexual orientation.
Nearly 72% of people who plan to vote for Biden wanted to live in a place where gender-affirming care for children is fully legal.
On abortion, 35% of Trump voters said they don't want to live in a place where abortion is legal. At the same time, 48% of Trump voters said they were indifferent to abortion laws.
"When it came to respondents as a whole - which includes people who said they don't plan to vote for either Biden or Trump - 36.5% want to live somewhere abortion is legal," Redfin noted.
Among Biden voters, 60% said they wanted to live in a place where there is racial diversity, compared with 26% of Trump voters.
As the November election draws near, Americans also appear to be split on their enthusiasm for voting, according to an April report by polling firm Gallup.
The company said 54% of respondents were more fired up about voting in 2024 than in previous elections, while 41% were less excited about voting this year. "The resulting 13-percentage-point spread is about average for net enthusiasm at this stage of a presidential campaign," Gallup said.
-Aarthi Swaminathan
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 29, 2024 16:24 ET (20:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments