Gallup finds new high in voters who say they’ll only vote for candidate who agrees with them on abortion

Gallup’s latest poll released Wednesday found a new high in the number of voters who say they will only back a candidate who agrees with their own personal opinion on abortion — another sign of the issue’s rising importance for some voters.

While the number — 28 percent — was only one percentage point higher than last year, it’s a new high for Gallup when asking the question and underscores the roiling political tensions since the Supreme Court decision one year ago this week to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said that abortion views do matter but are just one factor in selecting a candidate. That’s only a two-point increase from the 2022 poll, but significantly higher than poll averages before the Supreme Court changed abortion law with the Dobbs decision in June 2022.

The Gallup poll also found a record low in the number of voters who say they don’t care about a candidate’s position on abortion — just 14 percent. In 2007 that figure was 23 percent.

Nearly two-thirds of the voters who say abortion is their most important issue say they support abortion rights, a significant increase from before 2022, where a majority of those who found it most important were those against abortion rights.