A First Glimpse Into the 2012 Blair Center/Clinton School Poll

In November and December 2012, GfK (formerly Knowledge Networks) conducted the National and Regional Issues Survey on behalf of the Blair Center and Clinton School at the University of Arkansas. A total of 3,606 Americans were interviewed, with a median response time of 21 minutes. To allow for comparisons by region and race/ethnicity, a stratified sample was selected from GfK’s Knowledge Panel. In total, the sample includes 1,792 respondents from Southern states (819 white respondents, 408 African-Americans, and 565 Latinos and Latinas) and 1,814 respondents who live in the continental United States outside the South (834 whites, 435 African-Americans, and 545 Latinos and Latinas). The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish, and approximately half of the Latino and Latina respondents completed the survey in each language.

Though the Blair Center-Clinton School Poll in its entirety covers a range of issues regarding gender and race relations, regional distinctiveness, as well as policy preferences, this report highlights some of the initial findings related to significant current events. In particular, it provides a first glimpse into the 2012 presidential election, beliefs about Romney’s religion, credit for bin Laden’s death, opinions surrounding student loan debt, and hypothetical vote choices in 2016.