{"id":50187,"date":"2012-04-18T12:28:01","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T17:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2012\/04\/18\/most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:10:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:10:43","slug":"most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/04\/18\/most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Swing Voters Favor Afghan Troop Withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview<\/h2>\n\n

Public support for maintaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan has reached a new low. And as the general election campaign begins, swing voters, by nearly two-to-one, favor removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of voters who say they are certain to support Barack Obama in the general election favor a rapid U.S. troop withdrawal. But support for a troop pullout is nearly as extensive (59%) among swing voters — those who are either undecided in their general election preferences, lean toward a candidate or say they may still change their minds. Swing voters make up nearly a quarter (23%)<\/a> of all registered voters.<\/p>\n\n

Voters who express certainty about voting for Mitt Romney in the fall are divided over what to do about U.S. troops in Afghanistan: 48% favor removing them as soon as possible, while 46% support maintaining U.S. forces there until the situation has stabilized.<\/p>\n\n

The latest survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted April 4-15, 2012 among 1,494 adults, including 1,164 registered voters, finds that public support for keeping troops in Afghanistan has reached a new low.<\/p>\n\n

Just 32% of the public now says that the U.S. should keep troops in Afghanistan until the situation there has stabilized, while 60% favor removing the troops as soon as possible. In May 2011, the public was evenly divided over removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan (48% remove troops vs. 47% keep troops there).<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Support for keeping U.S. forces in Afghanistan has declined over the past year among Republicans, Democrats and independents. For the first time in a Pew Research Center survey, as many Republicans (48%) favor removing U.S. forces from Afghanistan as soon as possible as support keeping the troops there until the situation is stabilized (45%).<\/p>\n\n

As recently as a month ago, a majority of Republicans (53%) said they favored staying in Afghanistan until the situation stabilized, while 41% favored a troop withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n

Currently, 66% of Democrats and 62% of independents say the U.S. should <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

remove troops as soon as possible, while about three-in-ten (29%) in each group favors keeping forces in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n

The proportion of independents who favor a troop pullout has increased 11 points since last May (from 51%) immediately after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Over this period, the percentage of Democrats favoring a troop withdrawal has increased 16 points (from 50% in May)<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Growing support for a troop pullout comes as public assessments of the war effort have reached their lowest point since the fall of 2009. Currently, just 38% say the military effort is going very or fairly well, while almost half (49%) say that it is going not too or not at all well. Just a month ago, about half (51%) said that things were going very or fairly well there.<\/p>\n\n

Among partisans, just four-in-ten Democrats (41%) and Republicans (40%) offer positive assessments of the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan, while about half offer negative assessments. Last month, majorities of Democrats (56%) and Republicans (52%) said the military effort was going well.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public support for maintaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan has reached a new low. And as the general election campaign begins, swing voters, by nearly two-to-one, favor removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of voters who say they are certain to support Barack Obama in the general election favor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","sub_headline":"Support for U.S. Troop Presence Hits New Low","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","bylines":[],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[{"key":"02e95b4b-ae5c-47d8-819f-860d0d5b7061","type":"report","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/legacy-pdf\/04-18-12-Afghanistan-Release2.pdf"},{"key":"24320874-e436-4821-8130-fda84c7de44e","type":"topline","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/legacy-questionnaires\/04-18-12-Afghanistan-topline-for-release.pdf"}],"multiSectionReport":[{"key":"_migrate_0","postId":50202}],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,98,428],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[1381],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[520],"class_list":["post-50187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-affairs","category-war-international-conflict-1","category-war-international-conflict-2","datasets-april-2012-values-survey","formats-report","research-teams-politics"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":489,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/04\/18\/most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":50187,"title":"Most Swing Voters Favor Afghan Troop Withdrawal","slug":"most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/04\/18\/most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal\/","is_active":true},{"id":50202,"title":"About the Survey","slug":"about-the-survey-266","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/04\/18\/about-the-survey-266\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":[{"key":"02e95b4b-ae5c-47d8-819f-860d0d5b7061","type":"report","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/legacy-pdf\/04-18-12-Afghanistan-Release2.pdf","label":"","icon":"","attachmentId":""},{"key":"24320874-e436-4821-8130-fda84c7de44e","type":"topline","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/legacy-questionnaires\/04-18-12-Afghanistan-topline-for-release.pdf","label":"","icon":"","attachmentId":""},{"type":"dataset","id":1381,"label":"April 2012 Values Survey","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/dataset\/april-2012-values-survey\/"}],"report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":50187,"title":"Most Swing Voters Favor Afghan Troop Withdrawal","slug":"most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/04\/18\/most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal\/","is_active":true,"page_num":1},"next_post":{"id":50202,"title":"About the Survey","slug":"about-the-survey-266","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/04\/18\/about-the-survey-266\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[{"id":50187,"title":"Most Swing Voters Favor Afghan Troop Withdrawal","slug":"most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/04\/18\/most-swing-voters-favor-afghan-troop-withdrawal\/","is_active":true,"page_num":1},{"id":50202,"title":"About the Survey","slug":"about-the-survey-266","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/04\/18\/about-the-survey-266\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Most Swing Voters Favor Afghan Troop Withdrawal","parent_id":50187},"materialsOrdered":[{"key":"02e95b4b-ae5c-47d8-819f-860d0d5b7061","type":"report","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/legacy-pdf\/04-18-12-Afghanistan-Release2.pdf","label":"","attachmentId":0,"icon":""},{"key":"24320874-e436-4821-8130-fda84c7de44e","type":"topline","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/legacy-questionnaires\/04-18-12-Afghanistan-topline-for-release.pdf","label":"","attachmentId":0,"icon":""}],"chaptersOrdered":[{"key":"_migrate_0","postId":50202}],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Most Swing Voters Favor Afghan Troop Withdrawal","description":"Overview Public support for maintaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan has reached a new low. And as the general election campaign begins, swing voters, by nearly two-to-one, favor removing U.S. troops…","og_title":"Most Swing Voters Favor Afghan Troop Withdrawal","og_description":"Overview Public support for maintaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan has reached a new low. And as the general election campaign begins, swing voters, by nearly two-to-one, favor removing U.S. troops…","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125739,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50187\/revisions\/125739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=50187"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=50187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}