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Outdoor issues are critical to motivating Western voters, but those voters are increasingly frustrated that politicians in Washington don't understand what's important to them. That's the big takeaway from the Center for Western Priorities' 2022 Winning the West poll of nearly 2,000 voters in four swing states.
When asked an open-ended question about what issues impact Western states that politicians in DC don't pay enough attention to, water shortages, wildfires, and climate change all rise to the top. The poll found broad bipartisan agreement that leaders need to do more to plan for severe droughts and wildfires, and that public lands bring all of us together as Americans.
Western voters across the political spectrum also strongly support President Biden using his executive authority to protect new national monuments. 86 percent of Colorado voters support giving national monument protection to areas in the CORE Act, a bill that would protect over 400,000 acres in the state, but has been stalled in Congress.
Similarly, 77 percent of Nevada voters support designating the area around Spirit Mountain (Avi Kwa Ame) as a national monument, and 80 percent of New Mexico voters support permanent protections for Caja del Rio, between the Rio Grande and Santa Fe rivers.
The poll also found that while Western voters are concerned about high gas prices, they place the blame squarely on oil and gas companies and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Just 21 percent of voters said they have favorable opinions of elected officials who support more drilling on public land.
“Voters do support a transition to clean energy and clean fuel,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities. “They do understand that it's…oil companies reaping record profits and not passing savings onto consumers.”
Learn more at CWP's Winning the West site or download the poll results.
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Far-right militia groups have, for years, used the Western United States as a testing ground for extremist violence, staging stand-offs on public land to amass followers and experiment with what they could get away with.”
