23 Nov 2010 Nationwide Poll of Conservative Voters Finds Big Business Should Fear Tea Party Activists
Washington, DC – Companies supporting President Obama’s big-government policies risk suffering a dramatic drop in customer favorability, a newly-released nationwide research survey of conservative voters conducted by FreedomWorks and the National Center for Public Policy Research reveals.
In one example of the research findings, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson – companies that played key roles in advancing President Obama’s agenda, including cap-and-trade and health care – experienced plummeting favorability among conservatives after they were informed of the companies’ lobbying efforts. The drop in favorability was most severe with conservative voters active in the Tea Party movement.
Significantly, a substantial number of these consumers said this drop in favorability would influence their buying decisions.
Key findings about conservatives:
* Favorability of General Electric fell from 51% to 20%.
* Favorability of Johnson & Johnson plunged over a staggering 50 points – from 69% to 16%.
* Sixty percent of conservative voters said they are less likely to buy products from companies that have lobbied in favor of Obama’s legislative agenda.
Key findings about Tea Party activists:
* Only 28% of conservatives active in the Tea Party had an initial favorable opinion of GE, but this number dropped to 13% after these voters were informed of GE’s support of Obama’s policies.
* 60% of conservatives active in the Tea Party had a favorable opinion of Johnson & Johnson, but this number plunged to 8% after they were informed of Johnson & Johnson’s support of Obama’s policies.
* Eighty-one percent of conservative voters active in the Tea Party are less likely to buy products from companies that have actively lobbied in favor of Obama’s legislative agenda.
“The poll demonstrates that conservatives are willing to hold businesses accountable for public policy positions that conflict with their values of limited government. Not surprisingly, Tea Party activists held the strongest views and are most eager to punish companies that are partnering with President Obama to loot them of their liberty. Big businesses are now on notice that there is a measureable business risk for actively supporting the Obama, Reid and Pelosi progressive public policy agenda,” said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project.
“For too long, big business elites have leveraged their special interest group politics to profit from the size and growth of government. The poll demonstrates that the days of easy money through backroom deals are over. Tea Party activists are willing to tackle progressive CEOs just as they tackled progressive politicians. Judging by the results of the mid-term elections, progressive CEOs should buckle up, because Tea Party activists are going to give them a very bumpy ride,” said Matt Kibbe, president and CEO of FreedomWorks.
The poll’s release comes on the heels of the historic mid-term elections, in which the American people soundly rejected President Obama’s progressive agenda.
The survey of 801 self-identified conservative voters found President Obama’s polices, including cap-and-trade, ObamaCare and the $787 billion stimulus were extremely unpopular with these voters and that the negative views were extended to the companies that helped President Obama pursue them.
GE lobbied for Obama’s stimulus plan and then received tens of millions of dollars from the economic recovery funds, and the company was a huge backer of the president’s cap-and-trade policy. Johnson & Johnson promoted both ObamaCare and cap-and-trade.
The survey was conducted by Wilson Research Strategies and has a margin of error of +/- 3.5%. It can be viewed at:
https://nationalcenter.org/teapartysurvey.pdf
FreedomWorks and the National Center for Public Policy Research can be visited online at www.freedomworks.org and www.nationalcenter.org respectively.