Poll: Gaza an issue for Wisconsin, swing voters

(The Center Square) – A new poll says a lot of swing state voters don’t plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris because of the war in Gaza.

The group Listen to Wisconsin is out with a new poll of pro-Palestinian voters that says voters in seven swing states, including Wisconsin, may vote for Harris if she changes her position on the war in Gaza.

“This poll is a clear call to action for Democrats to end the genocide, especially because it captures the views of many more than the over 48,000 who cast ‘uninstructed’ protest votes in the Wisconsin primary—and uncommitted voters across swing states,” Heba Mohammad, Listen to Wisconsin spokesperson, said in a statement.

The poll says 60% of pro-Palestinian voters are more likely to vote for Harris if she supports:

● Ensuring a total and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.

● Enacting an arms embargo on Israel to stop U.S. weapons from being used in Israel’s warfare, and enforcing U.S. law on foreign assistance in cases of gross human rights violations or war crimes.

● Condemning Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.

Listen to Wisconsin said the voters they spoke to are “referred to as ‘strongly pro-Palestine voters,’ having passed at least one of two screening questions. If respondents passed the second screener, ‘strongly agreeing’ to statements like ‘Israel is an apartheid state / committing genocide against the Palestinians,’ we refer to them as ‘Palestine Die-Hards,’” pollsters said.

The war in Gaza has been an issue for some progressive voters in Wisconsin since last spring’s protests at University of Wisconsin campuses. Nearly 48,000 pro-Palestinian voters didn’t vote for President Joe Biden during the spring primary election. That’s twice as many votes as Biden won Wisconsin by in 2020.

Look Wisconsin said the poll shows the war in Gaza is not just hurting Harris, but all Democrats.

“Over a quarter of respondents say Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza makes them less likely to vote for all Democrats in November, over a third say “it depends on the candidate.” Among non-Harris voters, almost 70% are less likely to vote for all Democrats on this basis,” pollsters added. “Almost 70% of non-Harris voters list Palestine among their top voting issues and strongly disapprove of her position on Gaza and Lebanon. The next most common voting issues of these respondents were climate change (39%) and inflation (41%).”

The poll talked to voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada. Results are weighted to be representative, and the margin of error across the sample is +/- 3.82 percentage points.