By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A new Rasmussen Reports national survey shows Republicans are ahead of Democrats in a major issue leading into the 2024 campaign: Crime.
According to Rasmussen, 53 percent of likely voters trust Republicans more to handle crime and law enforcement issues, while only 35 percent trust Democrats.
It’s an issue which definitely plays into the race for Washington governor, as the leading Republican candidate is the former King County sheriff known as the man who pursued and finally brought to justice the infamous “Green River Killer” almost two decades ago. Former Sheriff Dave Reichert, who also served seven terms in Congress, appears destined to face off against Democrat Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who has been in office for nearly 12 years. During that time, violent crime has gone up in the state despite passage of increasingly restrictive gun control laws which Ferguson supported.
The Rasmussen survey was conducted April 29-May 1 among 1,205 likely voters. It has a sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
The poll reveals that 61 percent of likely voters think crime is getting worse, while only 16 percent believe things are improving. Twenty percent see the problem remaining about the same.
A whopping 79 percent of voters expect crime to be a major issue including 45 percent who say it will be a very important issue.
Breaking things down along party lines, 62 percent of Republicans say crime is an important issue in the presidential race, and 44 percent of Independents agree, while only 30 percent of Democrats believe so. Eighty-two percent of Republicans along with 66 percent of Independents say violent crime is a problem that is getting worse while 38 percent of Democrats think this is the case.
Twenty-eight percent of Democrats think things are getting better but only 8 percent of Republicans and 12 percent of Independents agree.
“The overwhelming majority of Republicans (86%) and Democrats (70%) trust their own party more to deal with the crime issue,” Rasmussen said. “By a 30-point margin, unaffiliated voters trust Republicans (54%) more than Democrats (24%) to handle crime and law enforcement issues.”
A majority of voters in every age category believe the violent crime problem is getting worse, Rasmussen noted, “but those under 40 are less likely than their elders to trust Republicans to handle the crime issue.”
Rasmussen also found that, “Majorities of every racial category – 63% of whites, 52% of black voters, 56% of Hispanics and 77% of other minorities – believe the problem of violent crime in America is getting worse. Black voters are most likely to trust Democrats more to deal with the crime issue.”
