Moms Know Best Survey:
2500 Moms in Five States Share What Things Concern Them the Most
From The Tarrance Group
August 2-7, 2012
“Likely Voting Mothers”
PART I
Obama Job Approval, Leadership and Socialism
PART II
START Treaty / US Nuclear Capacity
EMP Attacks and Defense Shields
PART III
PART IV
PART I
Survey Scope
The Tarrance Group, known for its extensive political and issue survey work, including the highly regarded Battleground Poll, conducted this unprecedented online interview poll with 2500 Moms with at least one child under 18 years of age at home. This survey makes it clear that moms’ deep concerns are not just economic. Instead, when they understand the facts about critical but very neglected issues, they become much more independently minded – regardless of their normal party allegiances.
This survey was conducted with 500 moms in each of the following states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia and Florida. This survey covered a broad range of neglected topics from government-based impacts on gas prices to national security issues.
The survey covered a range of topics, from gas prices to national security. In an effort to truly “listen” to Moms, the survey incorporated an astonishing 15 open-ended questions, producing thousands of individual responses. Of the mothers interviewed, 729 were self identified “Independent,” 911 were Democratic, 860 were Republican. All were registered to vote.
Ideologically, 38% were self identified moderates. Of these 2500 moms who voted in 2008: 48% voted for Barack Obama and 38% for John McCain. The mom voters in 2008 usually vote Democratic (37%) and 37% usually vote Republican.
The online methodology allowed Tarrance to collect a vast set of data for analysis. As a whole, broadband Internet users tend to be more highly educated. In fact, this study finds that 77% of moms have attended at least some college. Of significance, according to the 2010 national exit poll, 79% of voters that year had attended at least some college.
The survey asked mothers both their current political identification and what their past voting behavior was. Among mothers who self-identified as Independent, 47% of them indicated they voted for Obama in 2008. Among mothers who said their past vote behavior was ticket splitting, 46% of them indicated they voted for Obama in 2008. Partisan loyalty was a key indicator in many of the responses, so our analysis will focus most often on those who identified themselves as Independents.
Key Findings
This survey conducted by The Tarrance Group, finds that while mothers’ top tier of concerns are pocketbook issues like jobs and gas prices, there is a notable level of concern among them about national security issues. They have mixed to negative views about President Obama and his impact on the country and are remarkably negative about the President’s ability to keep their families safe from foreign threats.
A majority of the 2500 mothers in every one of these states believes the country is on the wrong track. Overall, a plurality of these mothers disapproves of the job performance of the President. Among independent moms, the President also has a plurality disapproval rating.
Among the key findings in this survey:
- 73% of moms are concerned about the type of nuclear strategy that President Obama might pursue.
- 62% of moms are concerned by President Obama’s conciliatory remarks to Russian President Medvedev.
- 53% of moms thought it was inappropriate for President Obama to tell Israel that it should alter its borders.
- 78% of moms think the United States should increase off-shore drilling.
- 79% of moms think government regulations need to be trimmed to incentivize people to start small businesses or expand existing ones.
- When informed that Obamacare cuts Medicare funding, only 12% of moms thought this was fair.
These clearly broad, diverse and representative voices of moms in American reflect a keen desire for a vigorous national debate on critical “fairness” issues like America’s national security; American’s foreign policy with adversaries; and even more so, Americans foreign policy relations with long standing friends like Israel.
Also, moms have other major “fairness” issues of great concerns to Americans including current federal government restrictions on access to America’s vast energy resources; the harmful effects of government regulations on middle class small business; and Medicare funding cuts.
