Is there anything that Democrats and Republicans agree on? Most public opinion polls today — including many of our own — highlight large differences in where members of each party stand on political issues, and on lots of other things. But if you look hard enough, you can find some common ground.
In a series of recent surveys, we identified more than 100 national policy proposals with bipartisan support — meaning they're supported by more than half of Democrats and more than half of Republicans. Some issue areas with the most policies getting bipartisan agreement are government and electoral reform, criminal justice, and health care. Placing more restrictions on political candidates, and making health care more affordable, are popular among Democrats and Republicans.
How we chose the policies
We asked Americans whether they support or oppose 155 policies that our team hypothesized — based on past polling and, in some cases, intuition — could be bipartisan. We define bipartisan as being strongly or somewhat supported by over 50% of Democrats and also by over 50% of Republicans.
Our goal was to identify policies that are popular, on the merits and not because of question wording that makes them sound particularly appealing. We attempted to phrase the questions as neutrally as possible. Each question had response options of strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, strongly oppose, and not sure. We combined responses of strongly and somewhat support to determine the overall share of each party supporting a policy.
To ensure that the policies are plausible and actionable, we limited the list in two other ways, by narrowing it to policies that would be national in scope — meaning they could be implemented federally — and are not yet implemented. This means we exclude strictly state and local policies — as well as policies currently in place nationally, such as a ban on murder or the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Questions on policy support were included in a series of five surveys conducted May 7 - 16, 2024, each among more than 1,100 U.S. adult citizens. Of the 155 policies asked about in the survey, 70% (109) are strongly or somewhat supported by majorities of Democrats and Republicans. 95% of the policies (148) are supported by a majority of Americans overall. This survey follows up on a 2022 collection of 100 bipartisan policies from YouGov surveys conducted between 2020 and 2022 — by asking about dozens of new policies.
Areas with bipartisan policy support
Below, we categorize the 109 policies that are supported by majorities of Democrats and Republicans — that is, more than 50% of each group — in 15 broad issue areas. Bipartisan agreement covers robocalling, payday loans, and lost pets — as well as whistleblowers, gun seizures, and police misconduct.
Consumer protection
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Increasing restrictions on telemarketers' use of automated dialing and robocalling
- Banning excessive price increases during emergencies
- Creating a federal digital-privacy bill of rights to protect personal data and privacy online
- Requiring electronics manufacturers to give customers the information and tools they need to fix broken devices
- Creating a unified alert system to notify car owners of recalls
- Capping interest rates and fees for payday loans
- Requiring all electronic device manufacturers to make their products compatible with the same type of charger
- Banning credit agencies from reporting information on unpaid medical bills
- Imposing stricter penalties on companies that use monopolistic practices
Criminal justice
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Increasing legal protections for people who expose government wrongdoing
- Increasing penalties for violent crimes
- Increasing penalties for drug trafficking crimes
- Requiring prisons to charge inmates no more money for phone calls than is normally charged by carriers
- Expunging federal marijuana-related convictions for nonviolent offenders
Education
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Requiring financial literacy education in public high schools
- Increasing federal funding for trade schools and vocational training
- Increasing federal funding for public school accommodations for students with disabilities
- Funding free meals for all low-income public school students
- Requiring education about birth control in public high schools
- Funding pre-kindergarten for all children in low-income families
- Providing parents with vouchers for day care services
Elections
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Requiring presidential candidates to take cognitive exams and disclose the results
- Increasing accessible voting options for people with disabilities
- Restricting corporate spending in elections
- Increasing federal funding for states to upgrade their voting systems
- Requiring all voters to present a valid ID
- Requiring presidential candidates to disclose health records
- Restricting political advertising from using personal data to tailor messages to specific groups
- Making Election Day a national holiday
- Establishing independent nonpartisan commissions to draw electoral district maps
Energy and environment
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Increasing U.S. energy production
- Increasing funding for the maintenance of national parks
- Banning the testing of chemicals on cats and dogs
- Increasing funding for grants for sustainable farming practices
- Imposing tougher penalties on companies causing environmental damage
- Increasing disaster preparedness for climate-related events
- Making Daylight Saving Time permanent
Government reform
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Establishing limits on the number of terms that members of Congress are allowed to serve
- Banning stock trading by elected officials
- Requiring members of Congress to wait five years after leaving office before becoming lobbyists
- Establishing a maximum age limit for elected officials
- Requiring the Supreme Court to follow the same ethical standards as other federal judges
- Setting a maximum number of years that Supreme Court justices can serve
Guns
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Raising the minimum age to buy semi-automatic firearms to 21 from 18
- Requiring gun buyers to wait five days before receiving the gun
- Allowing guns to be temporarily seized from people whom judges deem dangerous
Health
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Establishing an organ donation registry to streamline matching with recipients
- Expanding Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing coverage
- Capping annual out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs
- Increasing federal funding for counseling for people with mental illness
- Making it easier for the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies
- Creating a national medical licensing system that allows doctors to practice across state lines
- Legalizing abortion when the woman's health is endangered by pregnancy
- Allowing people 55 and older to purchase a Medicare plan
- Creating a national prescription drug database to monitor opioid abuse
- Legalizing abortion for pregnancies caused by rape
- Allowing the purchase of glasses or contact lenses without a prescription
- Requiring tobacco companies to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes
- Requiring pharmaceutical companies to adopt uniform packaging for medications
- Increasing federal funding for opioid treatment programs
- Legalizing life-ending drugs for terminally ill people who choose to take them
Housing and infrastructure
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Modernizing national emergency communication systems
- Increasing federal funding for highway construction and maintenance
- Establishing national building codes to protect against natural disasters
- Increasing federal funding for the expansion of high-speed internet in rural areas
- Offering federal tax incentives to convert unused structures into affordable housing
- Capping rent increases that landlords can charge in homes built in part with federal funding
- Providing federal grants to cities to develop affordable housing
- Providing incentives for cities to offer free Wi-Fi access in public buildings and on transit
- Allowing only materials made in the U.S. to be used in federal infrastructure projects
Immigration and foreign policy
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Increasing federal funding to improve cybersecurity
- Increasing federal funding for surveillance at U.S. borders
- Requiring congressional approval for any use of nuclear weapons
- Requiring employers to use the E-Verify system to check employees' immigration status
- Reducing federal spending on foreign aid
Labor
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Banning companies found guilty of wage theft from getting government contracts
- Offering tax incentives for companies to move their manufacturing back to the U.S.
- Expanding federal tax incentives for companies hiring military veterans
- Banning employers from paying subminimum wages to people with disabilities
- Requiring companies to provide paid sick leave for full-time employees
- Raising the federal hourly minimum wage to $9 from $7.25
- Offering tax incentives for companies to provide paid internships
- Requiring companies to provide paid family leave for full-time employees
- Increasing protections for workers expressing their religious beliefs
Law enforcement
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Requiring law enforcement agencies to process rape kits within 90 days
- Providing incentives for police departments to require officers to wear body cameras
- Requiring police officers to intervene if they see colleagues using excessive force
- Requiring that mental health professionals be dispatched to emergencies involving mental health issues
- Creating a national database to track police misconduct
- Increasing federal funding for local police departments
- Creating a national standard for police de-escalation training
- Limiting police officers' ability to seize property they suspect is linked to a crime without first charging the owner with a crime
- Providing incentives for police departments to ban officers from using neck restraint techniques that prevent breathing
Social welfare
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Providing tax incentives for food service businesses to donate leftovers to local food banks
- Increasing federal funding for veterans’ services
- Increasing federal funding for long-term care for the elderly
- Passing an amendment to guarantee equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex
- Increasing federal funding for food for low-income families
- Expanding federal tax credits for child care expenses
Taxation
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Reducing federal taxes on families making less than $100,000 per year
- Reducing taxes on small businesses
- Lowering the federal gas tax
- Creating a free online tax filing system run by the IRS
- Increasing taxes on families making over $1 million per year
- Imposing a 25% federal tax on Americans with more than $100 million
Technology
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support…
- Increasing regulation of AI technology
- Developing federal guidelines regulating driverless vehicles
- Requiring technology companies to publish information about the algorithms used to recommend content
- Creating a unified pet microchip registry to track lost pets
Browse the full list below:
Democrats are more supportive of bipartisanship than Republicans are
Roughly eight in 10 of the policies with bipartisan backing in our survey are supported by a larger share of Democrats than of Republicans. This could be due to Democrats generally being more supportive of government intervention than Republicans are.
Democrats also are more supportive of bipartisanship as a concept, and of policies they are told have bipartisan support. Democrats are likelier than Republicans to say that policies with bipartisan support are usually the best policies, and to say they respect politicians more when they make efforts towards bipartisanship. And more Democrats than Republicans say that learning a policy has bipartisan support makes them more inclined to support it.
While many Americans value bipartisanship, few believe it's common in today's political landscape. Just under one-quarter believe that Democrats and Republicans very or somewhat often agree on policies, and even fewer say the same about party leaders. People who pay more attention to politics are more likely to believe that bipartisan policy agreement is common.
Related: 100 policies supported by majorities of Democrats and Republicans
— Paul Teas contributed to this article
See the results for these YouGov polls
Methodology: The poll was conducted online among U.S. adult citizens on five separate surveys, conducted May 7 - 10, 2024 (1,177 U.S. adult citizens), May 8 - 10, 2024 (1,150), May 9 - 13, 2024 (1,160), May 10 - 15, 2024 (1,177), and May 13 - 16, 2024 (1,169). A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for each survey is approximately 3% to 4%.
Image: Generated by author using Dall-E, an AI image-creation tool
