Washington — A nationwide election eve poll released today by the First Focus Campaign for Children shows broad, bipartisan support for a wide range of federal investments in America’s children. The poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners, found that strong majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents favored key federal initiatives for kids.

“The American people might have voted for divided government, but they’re unified on one thing – they want Congress and the White House to invest in kids,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley.

Voters backed a wide range of federal initiatives to improve the well-being of children, including:

  • Concrete plans to reduce child poverty — 82 percent of voters (89 percent of Democrats, 81 percent of independents, and 76 percent of Republicans) want Congress and the White House to deliver a plan to cut child poverty in half within 10 years, while just 13 percent disagreed.
  • Protecting family tax credits — 81 percent (90 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of independents, and 74 percent of Republicans) favor protecting elements of the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit that will expire this year unless Congress acts, while 12 percent oppose.
  • Protecting Children’s Health — 83 percent (93 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of independents, and 75 percent of Republicans) say extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program is important to them, while 13 percent said this has little or no importance.
  • Creating a Children’s Budget — 66 percent (76 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents, and 56 percent of Republicans) want the president to provide an official accounting of federal investments in children, while 22 percent oppose.
  • Enacting the DREAM Act — 68 percent (88 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of independents, and 50 percent of Republicans) favor legislation offering qualifying students who entered the United States as undocumented immigrant children an opportunity to earn lawful permanent residency and a path to U.S. citizenship, while 26 percent opposed.
  • Creating a Bipartisan Children’s Commission — 78 percent (89 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of independents, and 68 percent of Republicans) support creating a bipartisan “Children’s Commission” to recommend solutions to the problems facing children, while 15 percent oppose.

“If you’re a Republican or a Democrat in Congress, you’re getting a clear signal here – you’re out of touch with voters if you’re not leading the charge on children’s issues,” said Lesley.

The survey was conducted by phone using professional interviewers November 4th through November 6th, 2012. Lake Research Partners reached a total of 1,200 likely, registered voters nationwide. The sample consisted of 1,000 interviews among voters who were reached on landline phones and 200 interviews among voters reached on cell phones. Telephone numbers for the base sample was drawn from a random digit dialing sample and the cell phone sample was drawn from a listed sample. The sample was stratified geographically based on the proportion of likely voters in each region. Data were weighted to reflect the aggregated Presidential vote as reported in the 2012 exit polls, as well as by gender, party identification, marital status, race, and census region. The margin of error at the 95% confidence interval is +/- 2.8 percentage points.

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