Half of Americans say they are certain they will vote in the upcoming midterms

Washington, DC, February 15, 2022 – A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that only one-quarter (25%) of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction. Thirty-six percent of Americans believe the COVID-19 pandemic is heading in the right direction, and ultimately 45% approve of President Biden’s performance in office. Half of Americans (51%) say they are entirely certain they will vote in this November’s upcoming election, with 41% saying they strongly agree with the statement: I will regret if I don’t vote in the upcoming congressional election.

Americans are generally split on the important factor/issue when deciding who to vote for – 22% want a candidate who can restore trust in government, 21% want a candidate who is strong on the economy, and 17% want someone who has a plan to tackle COVID. Americans are evenly split on which party’s candidate would have a better plan for the economy (38% Democratic candidate, 39% Republican). More Americans believe Democrats are stronger on COVID-19 (42% Democratic candidate, 32% Republican candidate), and they are split on who can restore trust in government (36% Democratic candidate, and 33% Republican candidate).

Nearly half (47%) of Democrats believe that Democrats have been unable to get things done because Republicans are blocking their efforts, 25% think Democrats accomplished most of their objectives in 2021. On the other side, 46% of Republicans say Democrats have been too busy fighting amongst themselves, and 33% say they have been unwilling to push things through.

Two-thirds of Americans (64%) report that COVID-19 is a very real threat to our society, while 36% say we need to get back to our lives. Seventy-one percent of Americans report being concerned about COVID-19 with Democrats more likely to say they are concerned about the virus because of concerns over their family’s well-being (31%) compared to 16% who are concerned about the economic impact. In comparison, 19% of Republicans are concerned about their families’ well-being, while 30% are concerned about economic disruption.

See Reuters' story for more details. 

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between January 31 and Feburary 7, 2022. For this survey, a sample of 4,404 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 2,015 Democrats, 1,663 Republicans, and 510 independents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval of ± 2.7 percentage points for Democrats, ± 2.9 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 5.3 percentage points for independents.  

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

About Ipsos

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