Elizabeth Warren's plan to cancel student debt is popular with voters, survey finds
- In a new Politico/Morning Consult poll, 56% of registered voters say they support the Massachusetts senator's proposal to wipe out $640 billion in outstanding education loans by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
- Just 27% of voters say they oppose the plan.
- Even among voters who've never had student loans, support for Warren's proposal is high.
The majority of American voters give a thumbs up to Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's plan to cancel student debt.
In a new Politico/Morning Consult poll, 56% of registered voters said they support the Massachusetts senator's proposal to wipe out $640 billion in outstanding education loans by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Just 27% of voters said they opposed the plan.
The poll was conducted between May 3 and May 6 and included 1,990 registered voters. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
More from Personal Finance:
Your child's sports could be sabotaging your finances
Here are the best and worst jobs of 2019
Retirees are flocking to these hot spots
Nearly 45 million Americans hold student loans today, and education debt has surpassed credit card or auto debt.
Warren is the only presidential candidate to issue a detailed plan on student debt forgiveness. Under it, borrowers with household incomes under $100,000 would have $50,000 of their student debt canceled, and those who earn $100,000 to $250,000 would be eligible for relief on a sliding scale.
"My broad cancellation plan is a real solution to our student debt crisis," Warren wrote on Medium last month. "It helps millions of families and removes a weight that's holding back our economy."
Women were more likely (37%) than men (31%) to "strongly support" the proposal. Nearly two-thirds of the country's outstanding student loan debt is held by women, due, in part, to the wage gap, which makes it harder for women to pay off their debt as quickly as men.
The plan is not just popular among young voters. In fact, 52% of people aged 18 to 29 "strongly support" the debt cancellation plan, compared with 60% of those aged 45 to 54. Student debt has been rising quickly among older people, as repayment timelines drag on and parent borrowing increases.
Voters who make under $50,000 a year were more likely (59%) to support the plan than those who earned over $100,000 (47%).
While more than half of Democratic voters strongly support the plan, just 17% of Republicans do.
Overall, even 52% of voters who've never taken out student loans approve of Warren's proposal. Though among people who currently have student debt, that support rises to 75%.