A new poll by the National Parents Union, a group that fights for families on economic, educational, and environmental issues, shows that with three weeks to go until the election, parents who are registered to vote are pretty evenly split between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The poll, which was done earlier this month, found that 48% of parents whose kids were in kindergarten through 12th grade were leaning toward voting for Trump, 47% were leaning toward Harris, and 4% were not sure.
“For the most part, it fits with the times and the way things are politically right now.” “It’s really a tie,” NPU president Keri Rodrigues told MarketWatch. The group has backed Harris. Polls show that the race is now a tie, with Trump ahead in most swing states and Harris ahead in the rest of the country.
A poll by the Pew Research Center in August 2023 found that parents were generally more Republican than people who were not parents. Parents who were men were more likely than parents who were women to say they were Republicans or leaning Republican (54% vs. 46%).
59% of parents surveyed by NPU said that the economy was one of their main concerns. The most common economic worry was the cost of food and household items. This shouldn’t be a surprise; since 2021, households with children under 18 have told the Federal Reserve that their financial situation has been getting worse, with most saying that rising prices have made things worse.
NPU polled parents and found that more of them (50%) believe the Republican party to handle economic issues than the Democratic party (42%). However, when respondents were given anonymous economic positions, they liked Harris’s ideas more than Trump’s.
A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee told MarketWatch in an email, “Trump is winning or tied in every battleground because his message is hitting home with voters across the country.” Kelly said that more people are voting Republican because the “Democrat Party’s dangerously liberal policies have failed the hardworking men and women of America.” She used rising costs for things like child care, groceries, diapers, and baby formula as an example.
MarketWatch asked the Harris campaign for a response, but they didn’t answer right away.
Parents polled by the NPU were more likely to believe Democrats on issues like abortion (54%), health care (53%), and climate change (51%).
Rodrigues told MarketWatch, “From our point of view, it’s really going to come down to the closing argument about the economy.” Republicans are constantly yelling, ‘The economy is trash,’ day and night. We understand how hard it is for you. It is really tough.’ But they don’t have the answers that would make some of that pain go away.
Rodrigues said that Democrats have been careful not to criticize the Biden-Harris administration’s economic record. This means that parents may feel “as if they don’t believe us” when voters talk about their money worries. “What will really matter is how well she can explain Harris’s plans to the American people.”
Boosting the child tax credit is something that both the Trump and Harris campaigns have talked about as a way to help parents with their finances. This is something that 86% of parents surveyed by NPU said they agreed with. The credit should go from $2,000 to $3,000 for kids 6 and up, $3,600 for kids 2 to 5, and $6,000 for babies. This is what Harris wants to do. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, wants to raise the credit to $5,000 per child. However, the Trump team has not said for sure that Trump supports the idea; they have only said that Trump would “consider a significant expansion of the child tax credit.”
Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz both agreed in the vice presidential debate earlier this month that child care costs are too high because they have gone up faster than inflation. MarketWatch reported that Vance wanted to give parents more choices in child care by funding non-center-based care through the government. Walz agreed with giving parents more choices.
