Americans Care Most About Rising Costs, Inflation and Not the 2020 Election 

Since the start of Trump’s second term, Navigator has tracked what Americans from across the country want their elected leaders to focus on and what they actually think those in power are prioritizing. Americans want their leaders to focus on lowering inflation and the cost of living but instead see Trump and Republicans in Congress most focused on immigration, foreign conflicts, and election integrity.

That disconnect was once again on display, when President Trump used a primetime White House address to revive debunked claims about vote tampering and foreign interference. Not only does Navigator’s data show that is not what Americans want their leaders in Washington to focus on, but additional Navigator Research data shows the vast majority of Americans believe their votes were counted correctly and fairly in the 2020 election. And when asked, even a majority of Republicans oppose Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

But many Americans already distrust the political system and some worry their vote won’t count. In a recent survey of Democratic-leaning voters, fielded before Trump’s speech, about one-third (32%) admit they are not motivated to vote. Among this group, many think their vote doesn’t count (24%), and that the system is corrupt and rigged against them (19%).

Leaning into Trump’s Bogus Claims of Rigged Elections Can Backfire With Certain Audiences

Republican voter suppression tactics could be effective in discouraging some lower propensity Democratic voters to turn out in November. A significant portion of younger Black Americans (17%) say hearing about these voter suppression policies makes them less motivated to vote. About one-in-four Hispanic Americans over age 45 say it has no impact on their motivation to vote.

Among all the election security policies tested, deploying ICE agents to polling sites had the largest negative impact on vote motivation: 36% of respondents said this would make them “much less likely” to vote, including 33% of Hispanic American respondents. A ban on mail-in voting had a similar demotivating effect, with 27% of all respondents – and 35% of Hispanic Americans – saying it would make them much less likely to vote.

Messaging on the wider harms caused by the Trump administration – rising costs, corruption, abuse of power – were all more effective at motivating respondents to vote than messages about Trump’s tampering with and rigging the election. The most effective messaging focuses on a call to action to vote out elected officials who aren’t tackling rising inflation or lowering costs while also reassuring Americans that our elections are safe and secure. 

This messaging guidance outlines how to communicate about election interference without demotivating key Americans from voting.