Swing State Alert: Resonate Announces Fresh Insights on Michigan and Pennsylvania voters

With swing states, indies, persuadables and undecideds all at the epicenter of the Trump and Clinton presidential campaign strategies, Resonate, Inc. today unveiled exclusive insights from its proprietary research that shed important light on how campaigns can persuade Michigan and Pennsylvania’s voters, down to the congressional district level.

Resonate is a leading provider of intelligence-to-activation technology that helps political campaigns and advocacy organizations identify and target audiences based on the issues that matter to them the most.

“Swing Factors” for Michigan and Pennsylvania from Resonate’s research are:

Michigan Swing Factor #1: Voters care about job, education, and entitlement programs.

Michigan voters are 9% more likely than the average U.S. voter to be concerned with job creation and education policy as top platforms and 7% are concerned about entitlement policy. Immigration policy is not as much of a priority with voters being 15% less likely to focus on it.

Michigan Swing Factor #2: The vast majority of voters are supportive or persuadable of decriminalizing recreational marijuana use.

40% of Michigan voters support the legalization of marijuana for general recreational use, while just 26% oppose it. The remaining 34% consider themselves persuadable.

Pennsylvania Swing Factor #1: Voters care about environment, government spending, taxes, and entitlements platforms. 

Pennsylvania voters are more likely than the average U.S. voter to be concerned with environmental policy (7%), government spending (5%), tax policy (4%) and entitlement policy (3%) when selecting a candidate to support.

Pennsylvania Swing Factor #2: Voters rely on gut and media sources to select a candidate. 

34% of Pennsylvania voters are more likely to rely on their gut when determining their preferred candidate. They also are influenced by newspapers (28% of the population) and broadcast news (26% of the population). These voters are 7% less likely to allow their friends and family to play a role in their decision.

Pennsylvania Swing Factor #3: Terrorist and nuclear threats are the greatest concern to voters.

While Pennsylvania voters are 19% less likely than the average U.S. voter to view environmental threats such as climate change as a security concern to the U.S., a large percentage of people view terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda (14%) and nuclear threats from countries such as Iran and North Korea  (11%) as large concerns.

Campaigns Can Take Advantage of Significant Variances by Congressional District

According to Resonate Vice President of Client Solutions, Gary Sherwood, when developing state-level message and targeting strategies, campaigns should be mindful of geographic differences, down to the congressional level. “Here’s a great example of variances by district,” said Sherwood. “While the statewide population of Pennsylvania is more likely than the average to consider rogue countries such as Iran and North Korea as a top concern to the U.S., certain congressional districts such as PA-4, PA-5, PA-11, PA-12, PA-13 consider these rogue states to be much less of a concern to the country than other threats, whether domestic, foreign or environmental.”

Resonate data such as the examples above can be quickly activated for digital media targeting and informing both online and offline creative strategy. Targeting voters based on values and the issues they care most passionately drive the most efficient and impactful mobilization.

Source: All data is based on Resonate’s survey of 7,763 Pennsylvania Voters, April 

About Resonate

Resonate offers a powerful consumer intelligence-to-activation technology that has helped hundreds of organizations more fully understand and connect with their audiences based on the underlying motivations and values that drive their decisions to buy or support certain candidates, causes and brands.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Resonate is privately held and backed by Revolution Growth, Greycroft Partners, and iNovia Capital.