A new poll first obtained by the Daily Caller reveals that conservative-leaning voters are willing to compromise on economic populism if it means out-competing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The poll, commissioned by Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE), tests various messaging strategies for conservatives to deploy relating to the biotech industry. It found that the strongest argument for Republicans to use against increased regulation of the biotech industry is centered on defeating China.
Big Pharma would be communist https://t.co/hSBfnxFXWP
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 19, 2023
CASE tested 11 different arguments on conservative voters and found that the most persuasive were that strengthening the American biotech sector would reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing, and that Chinese intellectual property theft puts the U.S. biotech sector at a competitive disadvantage. 84.4% of conservatives found the former “persuasive,” along with 80.4% for the latter. In total, three of the top five most persuasive arguments centered around competition with China.
Conservatives were also persuaded by arguments relating to drug shortages caused by overreliance on foreign supply chains, and global economic uncertainty. (RELATED: Massive Pharma Company Exec: We Want To ‘Love The Communist Party’)
“Many free-market conservatives who for too long took the support of Republicans for granted now despair that appealing to these same voters is a lost cause. This does not have to be the case,” CASE co-founder Gerard Scimeca wrote in a memo that will be released later today alongside the poll results. “We must earn Republican support by making free-market biotech solutions relevant to their current concerns — not just with abstractions. By recentering the debate about biotech policies around keeping America safe from China, free-market conservatives can win the hearts and minds of Republican voters.”
CASE conducted the poll with Cygnal, a Republican polling and analytics firm. They surveyed 1,000 Republicans and independents between June 5 and June 8, and the poll had a margin of 3.02%. 17.2% of respondents identified themselves as “extremely conservative,” 32.2% as “very conservative,” 29.4% as “somewhat conservative,” 15.3% as moderate and 2% as liberal.
