A recent Gaither International survey asked 1,138 Puerto Rico voters across the Island their views on a range of social issues.
Government spending
The highest levels of agreement came on the questions relating to government spending. 88% of respondents wanted to see government reduce spending, and the same number agreed that the government should cut taxes.
Pew Research recently surveyed people across the United States on these questions. While they found a lot of nuance, both of these positions are more strongly associated with Republican views than Democratic views.
Education
The next highest degree of agreement came on two questions relating to eduction. 83% wanted to see student loans forgiven, while 72% favored allowing prayer in public schools.
The American public in general is fairly evenly split on the question of student loan forgiveness, but Democrats are much more likely to be in favor of this than Republicans.
The majority of Americans favor allowing school-led prayer, but Republicans are much more likely to be on the side of school prayer than Democrats.
Legal questions
39% favored opening borders to undocumented immigrants and the same percentage agreed to legalizing marijuana. 38% agreed that same-sex marriage should be legal. All of these positions are associated more with Democrats than Republicans, though legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage are favored by a sizable majority of Americans across the country.
Legalizing abortion was less popular, at 29%, and legalizing gun use for 18 year olds was the least popular question, with just 18% agreeing. In national polls, a significant majority say that abortion should be legal and most want stricter gun laws. In spite of the majority positions on these questions, stricter abortion laws are more characteristic of Republicans and stricter gun laws are associated more with Democrats.
Generalizations?
Overall, respondents tended to lean toward the conservative side on these social issues questions. However, there are answers that align more with Democrats, too. Of the nine questions, the majority positions were more similar to Republicans in seven cases.
While Puerto Rico voters don’t base their political positions on the mainland national political divide between Democrats and Republicans, these survey results provide yet more evidence that Puerto Rico would not be an all-blue state. Both parties would have opportunities to grow their voter bases in a state of Puerto Rico.
No responses yet