A new poll has found that the supply chain crisis will be a top issue for midterm voters in battleground states.
In the critical states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire, the Consumer Brands/Morning Consult polling found that voters expect their elected officials to act on preventing the next supply chain crisis.
A majority of surveyed voters reported that they have recently experienced shortages in grocery stores. New Hampshire residents reported the highest rate (75 percent), followed by Georgia (73 percent), Arizona (70 percent), and Nevada (65 percent), the pollsters reported.
Over half of the voters in each state said that the issues had a major or big impact on their ability to get the products they need.
Consumers are more concerned about their ability to find food, beverages, cleaning and personal care products than they are about delays and shortages on items like clothes, electronics and toys.
The results were nearly identical to a Consumer Brands/Ipsos poll conducted in October.
They found that concern about access to food and beverage products is at 55 percent, cleaning and personal care products at 44 percent, and holiday items at 34 percent. Meanwhile, less essential items like electronics are at 24 percent, apparel and shoes at 21 percent, and toys at 25 percent on the list of worries.
“Once invisible to consumers, the pandemic and holiday shipping crunch have unmasked the supply chain and made it kitchen table conversation,” Consumer Brands Association President Geoff Freeman said in a statement. “Voters have exhausted their patience with years of government inaction, and elected officials can’t afford to lose sight of the supply chain after New Year’s Day.”
Overwhelming majorities in New Hampshire (92 percent), Arizona (89 percent), Nevada (89 percent) and Georgia (89 percent) feel it is important to expand trucking capacity to catch up with supply chain demands.
- Voters’ top five ideas for solving trucking issues include:
- Creating “air traffic control” to match empty trucks with available loads.
- Offering Hours of Service flexibility to truck drivers.
- Allowing reasonable increase in truck weight limits.
- Government funding for truck driver recruitment and training.
- Government funding to accelerate production of new trucks.
Additionally, voters told the pollsters that they expect politicians to tackle supply chain issues in 2022.
Nearly seven out of ten voters in all of the states polled said that they expect their elected leaders to support ways to increase trucking capacity.
The poll was conducted from Nov. 24 to Dec. 8 among 692 registered voters in Arizona, 693 registered voters in Georgia, 589 registered voters in Nevada and 398 registered voters in New Hampshire. It did not provide a margin of error.
