Welcome back to the Data for Progress newsletter, your weekly update on our research, blog posts, and memos.

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Big week this week at Data for Progress, which is why we’re getting this newsletter in your inbox slightly later than normal. Unless you live under a rock, you probably saw that this week, the first round of checks for the expanded Child Tax Credit went out to families across the country. The expanded Child Tax Credit, passed this March as a component of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, will benefit millions of families and help cut child poverty in half — but the expansion is set to expire by the end of the year.

Fighting Chance for Families — our campaign with Groundwork Collaborative to make the expanded CTC permanent — highlighted the importance of the CTC throughout the week, and promoted our latest polling showing strong support for the CTC. By a 20-point margin, our poll with Mayors for a Guaranteed Income found voters support making the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent, including 74% of Democrats, 57% of Independents, and a third of Republicans. 


On Thursday, the day the first round of checks went out, Fighting Chance for Families joined Vice President Kamala Harris, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Raphael Warnock, Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro and Barbara Lee, Reverend William Barber II, and advocates and families across the country in a virtual celebration of the Child Tax Credit. The event, “Family Matters: A Virtual Celebration of the Child Tax Credit,” raised awareness for this important economic booster and highlighted the incredible impact the CTC will have on families and the economy.

We hope that you will join us in highlighting the importance of the CTC and in advocating for a permanent expansion of the credit. Check out our website and follow us on Twitter at @ExpandCTC.

DFP leaders make the case for polling in the progressive movement

You might know some people who think polling and progressivism are at odds — but in a recent piece in The Forge, our political director Marcela Mulholland and our senior climate analyst Danielle Dieseroth break down why polling is so crucial for the progressive movement. In the piece, Marcela and Danielle explain how our polls empower movement leaders with data to persuade elected officials conscious of reelection to get on board with their causes.

As Marcela and Danielle write in the piece, “The hard, transformative work that progressive organizers and elected officials are doing to enact systemic change requires reliable and actionable data to support it. In a political climate in which the odds are stacked against grassroots movements and the people who power them, it’s crucial that we don’t just work hard at persuading people to join the progressive movement but that we also work smart. Polling helps us do just that.”


#FreeBritney is about more than just Spears — and voters agree

The #FreeBritney movement has shined a critical light on abusive conservatorships, but her case is bigger than just one person. Our latest polling finds voters overwhelmingly want Spears’ conservatorship to be ended — and to reform the conservatorship system. Voters support ending Spears’ conservatorship by a 64-point margin, and support reforming the conservatorship system by a 53-point margin.




Senator Gillibrand joined the blog to champion the MJIIPA

Approximately 20,500 service members are sexually assaulted every year, but last year, fewer than 6,300 of these assaults were reported. Even more horrifying: of the cases that were considered, less than one in ten went to trial. This week, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand explained on the DFP blog why we need to address this by passing the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, which would place independent lawyers — not military commanders — in charge of prosecuting sexual assault cases. 

Our polling finds the MJIIPA is popular across partisan lines, with support from 70 percent of Independents and 60 percent of Republicans.




From Data for Progress

Memo: Georgia Voters Support the Clean Electricity Standard
Memo: West Virginia Voters Support the Clean Electricity Standard
Blog: President Biden Gets It: Americans Are Ready to Put People Over Profits
Blog: Voter's Opposition to the Death Penalty Extends to Life Without Parole
Blog: Sen. Gillibrand: Voters Want Lawyers - Not Commanders - To Prosecute Sexual Assault in the Military


DFP In The News 

Five Thirty Eight: How Long Can Texas Democrats Hold Out?
Bloomberg Green: Democrats Eye Penalties for Utilities That Miss Climate Targets
Slate: Parents, Let’s Spend Our Child Tax Credit Checks on Big-Screen TVs and Not Tell Our Kids
The Atlantic: Cash for Kids Comes to the United States
The New York Times: By Choice and Circumstance, Democrats Put Voting Rights on the Ballot
Bloomberg: What a National Guaranteed Income Could Look Like
The Hill: Leaving climate provisions out of infrastructure package is bad policy — and bad politics
The Daily Beast: These Republicans Are Tiptoeing Toward a Green New Deal
The Forge: Polling for Progress Primary


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