Gallup’s latest poll released Wednesday found a new high in the number of voters who say they will only back a candidate who agrees with their own personal opinion on abortion — another sign of the issue’s rising importance for some voters.
While the number — 28 percent — was only one percentage point higher than last year, it’s a new high for Gallup when asking the question and underscores the roiling political tensions since the Supreme Court decision one year ago this week to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said that abortion views do matter but are just one factor in selecting a candidate. That’s only a two-point increase from the 2022 poll, but significantly higher than poll averages before the Supreme Court changed abortion law with the Dobbs decision in June 2022.
The Gallup poll also found a record low in the number of voters who say they don’t care about a candidate’s position on abortion — just 14 percent. In 2007 that figure was 23 percent.
Nearly two-thirds of the voters who say abortion is their most important issue say they support abortion rights, a significant increase from before 2022, where a majority of those who found it most important were those against abortion rights.
“The diminished pro-life segment of the electorate is less energized on the issue than they have been previously, indicating that the desire to see laws changed is more motivating to voters than wanting current laws maintained,” Gallup Director of Social Research Lydia Saad said.
Saad said that could explain failed ballot measures in multiple states last year to enshrine abortion bans in state constitutions in Kentucky, Kansas and other red states.
Abortion was seen as a critical issue in the 2022 midterms that may have helped Democrats hold on to their Senate majority. Democrats lost the House majority, but did not lose as many seats as predicted for a typical midterm election for the president’s party. Abortion was also seen as a major factor in the House elections.
The 2022 poll was taken after a draft of the Dobbs decision leaked. The 2023 poll surveyed a random sample of 1,011 adults in May. It has a margin of error of four percent.
