probability RDD
Vanderbilt Poll
Vanderbilt Poll Tennessee, Spring 2023 · Apr 19–23, 2023 · US: Tennessee
Methodology
- Pollster
- Vanderbilt Poll academic
- Sponsor
- Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI), Vanderbilt University
- Fielded
- Apr 19–23, 2023
- Population
- registered voters
- Sample size
- 1,003
- Sample frame
- probability RDD
- Mode
- telephone - CATI, live interviewer, landline and cell phone, fielded by SSRS
- Margin of error
- +/- 3.6 percentage points
- Weighting
- two-stage weighting: base weight for differential selection probabilities across sample strata, then post-stratification raking to Tennessee registered-voter parameters for sex, age, race, education and region; missing raking values hot-deck imputed
- Geography
- US: Tennessee
- Base notes
- Several items were asked of a random half sample; the half-sample n is recorded on each question's results rows.
Sources
Verification note. Wording and full distributions read from Vanderbilt's Spring 2023 topline PDF; methodology from the companion SSRS methods report (n=1,003 TN registered voters; 502 landline and 501 cell, 435 cell-only; fielded April 19-23, 2023; +/-3.6 points). The drag item and the health-care item were each asked of a random half sample. || PARTIAL. Percentages were retrieved only from news write-ups (WATE, WBIR, WSMV) of the Vanderbilt Poll Spring 2023 release; the Vanderbilt Poll topline PDF was not retrievable in this session (news.vanderbilt.edu release for spring 2023 not located; WKRN and WBIR returned 403/timeout). Question wording is a journalist's paraphrase, not the pollster's stem. Mode and margin of error unknown. || PARTIALLY RESOLVED - figures re-confirmed against the source, methodology still missing. The WATE article was retrieved in full via curl this session and CONFIRMS the stored figures in its own words: 'most voters oppose legislation that would restrict transgender individuals' access to health care. Sixty-six percent opposed such restrictions with only a quarter of voters in support. That opposition holds across party lines, including in subdivisions of MAGA (52%) and non-MAGA Republicans (58%).' Note that the 25 percent support figure is WATE's 'only a quarter', i.e. an approximation, not a published point estimate. A SECOND trans-adjacent item is now captured from the same release: voters support bans on 'adult cabaret entertainment' in public spaces 63 to 35 - the drag-restriction item, which the previous record omitted. STILL BLOCKED: the Vanderbilt Poll's own Spring 2023 topline was not located; vanderbilt.edu/csdi/vanderbiltpoll/ returns 404, so mode, weighting and margin of error remain unknown and the question wording is still a journalist's paraphrase. WHAT TO TRY NEXT: the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions site under its current path, or news.vanderbilt.edu for the May 2023 Vanderbilt Poll release, which normally links a topline PDF.
Figures below are transcribed from these documents. Where they disagree with the source, the source governs.
Questions asked (5)
Political salienceapprove/disapprove
approval of the Tennessee legislature's handling of laws affecting the LGBTQ community, asked in the session that passed the drag and youth-care bans
How much do you (approve) or (disapprove) of the way the state legislature handles laws that affect the LGBTQ community in Tennessee? Do you: [OPTIONS READ IN ORDER FOR HALF / IN REVERSE ORDER FOR HALF]
Strongly disapprove
32%
Somewhat approve
23%
(VOL.) DK
16%
Somewhat disapprove
15%
Strongly approve
12%
(VOL.) REF
3%
Wording notes: names the 'LGBTQ community' rather than transgender people specifically, although the 2023 Tennessee session's LGBTQ bills were the drag restriction and the youth gender-affirming-care ban | 16% volunteered don't know, unusually high for this poll
neutral — Approve and disapprove are both offered and the option order is rotated across halves; the item does not characterise the legislation.
Drag & public expressionforced choice
banning 'adult cabaret entertainment' and drag shows on public property or where a minor could see them - Tennessee's 2023 Adult Entertainment Act
Do you think "adult cabaret entertainment" and drag-shows should be banned on public properties or in locations where it could be viewed by a minor?
Yes
63%
No
35%
(VOL.) DK
1%
(VOL.) REF
1%
Wording notes: adopts the statute's own euphemism, 'adult cabaret entertainment', and equates it with drag shows in the same breath | bundles the 'public property' restriction and the 'could be viewed by a minor' restriction into one yes/no | yes/no with no intensity probe and no explicit 'should not be banned' alternative read out
double_barreled — One answer has to cover two different bans - everywhere on public property, and anywhere a minor might see it - and the stem imports the Tennessee statute's framing by pairing drag shows with 'adult cabaret entertainment', a term that presupposes the performances are adult entertainment. A respondent who would restrict minors' access but not public property has no way to register that.
legislation restricting transgender Americans' access to health care (asked without an age limit)
Overall, do you (support) or (oppose) legislation that would place restrictions on transgender Americans' access to health care? [THEN PROBE: Do you (support/oppose) strongly or somewhat?] [OPTIONS IN PARENTHESES WERE ROTATED]
Strongly oppose
45%
Somewhat oppose
21%
Strongly support
14%
Somewhat support
11%
(VOL.) DK
4%
(VOL.) REF
4%
Wording notes: says 'transgender Americans' with no age qualifier, so it covers adults and minors together | 'restrictions on ... access to health care' does not say what would be restricted
neutral — Support and oppose are both offered and rotated, and the policy is described in its own terms without an argument attached. The generality of 'restrictions on access to health care' is a measurement limitation rather than a tilt: respondents supply their own referent.
support or opposition to restricting transgender people's access to health care
[paraphrase] whether the respondent supports or opposes legislation that would restrict transgender individuals' access to health care
Wording reconstructed from: WATE's paraphrase of the Vanderbilt Poll Spring 2023 release; the pollster's stem was not retrieved
Wording notes: as reported the item does not distinguish adults from minors, which materially changes results in other polls
unclear — only a journalist's paraphrase exists; whether the stem specified minors is unknown and is the single biggest determinant of results on this topic
Subgroup figures (2)
support for banning adult cabaret entertainment in public spaces
[paraphrase] whether the respondent supports bans on "adult cabaret entertainment" in public spaces
Wording reconstructed from: WATE's report of the Vanderbilt Poll Spring 2023 release, which puts 'adult cabaret entertainment' in quotation marks as the item's term
Wording notes: uses the statute's euphemism 'adult cabaret entertainment' rather than naming drag performance | the Tennessee law it tracks was widely understood as a drag ban
loaded_terms — 'adult cabaret entertainment' imports a sexualized frame from the statute; respondents plausibly answer about adult entertainment generally rather than about drag performance