Poll finds voters support many Democratic agenda items

A majority of Virginians strongly support raising minimum wage and increasing restrictions on firearms.

Published December 16, 2019 by Sydney Lake

A poll conducted by Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center for Public Policy finds strong support for several legislative items supported by the General Assembly’s incoming Democratic majority, ranging from increasing firearms restrictions to raising the minimum wage.

“This survey suggests there’s pent-up demand among voters for a lot of the Democrats’ policy agenda,” Wason Center Director Quentin Kidd said in a statement. “There’s pent-up demand in the Democrats’ caucus, too, and it will be revealing to see what legislation the new majority prioritizes now that they’re in power.”

The poll found that 86% of voters strongly support requiring background checks on all gun sales, 73% support passing a “red flag” law and 54% support banning assault-style weapons.

Eighty percent of voters strongly back the Equal Rights Amendment, 72% strongly support raising the minimum wage and 83% of voters strongly support decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The study also found that 64% of voters support automatic voter registration but 51% opposed no excuse-absentee voting. And 51% oppose giving localities the authority to remove or alter Confederate monuments.

The Wason Center conducted the poll with 901 registered Virginia voters from Nov. 11 to Nov. 22. The margin of error for the survey was +/- 3.4 %.

The 2020 Virginia General Assembly session opens Jan. 8.