Georgia Voters Overwhelmingly Support Direct Stimulus Payments

Executive Summary

A new poll from Data For Progress and The Justice Collaborative Institute shows that 87% of Georgia voters—including 84% of Republicans—support a direct federal stimulus payment to most Americans. For Peach State voters, direct financial payment should not be a matter of debate or compromise, and is instead an essential intervention in this time of crisis.

This broad-based support has direct implications for ongoing negotiations over the next federal relief package and for Georgia’s runoff election that will decide which party controls the United States Senate. When asked how a Senate candidate’s stance on payments would affect their support, 61% of Georgia voters, including 51% of Republicans, said they’d be more likely to vote for a candidate who supported stimulus payments. Fewer than one in five Georgia voters said they would be less likely to support a candidate for backing payments.

This poll shows how incumbent Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who have both opposed stimulus payments, are out of step with Georgia voters. In March, both candidates delayed before voting for the bipartisan relief package—and now both are avoiding the topic even as challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff expand on their relief plans. On Sunday, Perdue even refused to debate Ossoff, leaving his podium empty. Ossoff pressed the issue of direct payments from his podium saying that, had Perdue been present, he would have asked the senator, “Why he continues to oppose $1200 stimulus checks,” “Why he fought against them in the first place,” and “Why he isn’t in Washington right now championing direct financial relief . . . for an American people who are suffering.”