Today we published results from the first Free Press Indiana Poll.
Free Press Indiana, the support organization for FPI News and Mirror Indy, worked with Bellwether Research to survey over 800 likely voters in Indiana about their concerns and to gauge their opinions on the governor, president and the statewide races on ballots this fall.
You might be asking: Why would we invest in something like this?
The short answer: To fill a gap, which is part of our mission.
Media outlets used to regularly conduct independent polls to understand what people thought about current issues and elected officials, especially during big election seasons. But newsrooms have had to make tough decisions when faced with budget cuts, and the cost of doing a statewide survey has only continued to increase. The result is that a truly independent, high-quality poll — meaning a political party, candidate or special interest group didn’t commission or fund it and it wasn’t conducted only online — is hard, if not impossible, to find.
This election cycle, Indiana has seen a couple of polls conducted on the hotly contested secretary of state’s race, but one was associated with the Republican candidate and another was from the Democratic candidate.
We also wanted to hear Hoosiers’ opinions on important topics like data centers, energy costs, redistricting and property taxes. All of these issues will almost certainly be discussed during the next legislative session, and this poll gives us concrete data on how people feel.
No poll is perfect, but Bellwether Research’s methodology makes the data credible. The agency surveyed 896 registered voters in Indiana from Oct. 8-11 via telephone interviews and online surveys sent by text message. The results are based on responses from 839 likely voters, and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Bellwether Research is also no stranger to polling in Indiana. Their clients include former Gov. Mitch Daniels, Eli Lilly and the Nature Conservancy in Indiana.
The poll revealed multiple unexpected results in a reliably conservative state, including President Donald Trump’s underwater approval rating and government corruption being the top concern among respondents, which proves there’s value in occasionally taking the pulse of Hoosiers.
We hope to conduct more polls. For now, you can read more about the results in our coverage here.
Lindsey Erdody is editor in chief of FPI News. You can reach her at lindsey.erdody@fpinews.org or 765-203-1933.
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