By Rachel Leingang | Arizona Republic
Arizonans share broad consensus on key issues facing the state, like education and immigration, regardless of their backgrounds, a new report from the Center for the Future of Arizona and Gallup found.
It follows up on a similar 2009 survey that the center did with Gallup, which shared the views of Arizonans, what they want and where they align.
The report “holds a mirror up” to Arizona, to comprehensively assess where the state is at and where it could be, said Sybil Francis, the president and CEO of the Center for the Future of Arizona.
“I think it’s very important for people to understand the totality of who we are, what we aspire to, and what we could be if we set our minds to it,” she said.
The report offers dozens of ideas for policy changes that could address these shared values of Arizonans. And it shows that, in a time of harsh polarization, there are still many areas where people agree.
“There’s so much of a narrative around political division and partisanship and all of those challenges that we’ve been experiencing. … We really have much more in common. We agree on much more than we disagree…”
Sybil Francis, the president and CEO of the Center for the Future of Arizona.
The results came from more than 3,500 participants, who filled out mail and web surveys for Gallup between Aug. 28 and Oct. 26, 2020. More than 29,000 Arizona households received the survey, and a random sample of 3,586 respondents was used for the report to create a statistically accurate representation of Arizona’s regions and different demographic groups.
Gallup, a public opinion polling firm, typically works at the national level, making this type of state-level deep-dive special, said Steve Crabtree of Gallup, who worked on the survey.
The results show “strong points of consensus about what’s important for the state to work on in order to provide a promising future for all of its residents,” Crabtree said.
So, what do Arizonans want?
Here’s what the majority of Arizonans surveyed by Gallup said they agreed on.
