Climate-Change Views of New Hampshire Primary Voters

In this brief, author Lawrence Hamilton discusses the results of an April 2019 Granite State Poll conducted by the UNH Survey Center that asked 549 New Hampshire residents whether they planned to vote in the state’s 2020 presidential primary election and, if so, which candidate they favored. The survey also asked residents about their views on climate change. Hamilton reports that regardless of their candidate preferences, prospective voters in the New Hampshire Democratic primary agree with the scientific consensus that humans are changing Earth’s climate. Three-quarters of Republican primary voters favor President Trump, and most in this group do not believe that humans are changing the climate. Among Republicans who favor candidates other than Trump, majorities do think that humans are changing the climate. Climate-change views correlate with approval of President Trump more strongly than they do with political party. Climate change appears to be a unifying issue among Democrats, but a potential wedge issue for the minority of Republicans who are not Trump supporters