Detroit Free Press
May 27, 2025
Clara Hendrickson
Michigan voters have on partisan-tinted glasses as they view the economy, according to the results of a new Detroit Regional Chamber poll revealing deep economic polarization by party affiliation, including on President Donald Trump’s tariffs and fears of a recession.
Richard Czuba — whose Glengariff Group, Inc. conducted the poll, released May 27 — has done survey research for more than 40 years. Voters didn’t used to be this split on the economy, he said. But something has changed in recent years.
Forty-three percent of Michigan voters say they support Trump’s tariffs while 51% say they oppose them. But looking at party affiliation, 96% of strong Democrats oppose tariffs, 92% of strong Republicans support them and independent voters are split.
“You can’t get more divided than that,” Czuba told reporters in a news conference.
Czuba said independent voters’ views on the economy play a big role in deciding which way battleground Michigan goes politically. “It’s independents who are going to make decisions in Michigan and so we have to pay particular attention to where they are on all of these issues,” he said. “The Biden administration learned a very valuable lesson. Nobody wins by telling voters they’re wrong.”
The poll surveyed 600 Michigan voters by phone from April 24-28. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
Since January 2025, the share of voters who say the economy is growing has declined from 42% to 34%, comparing Detroit Regional Chamber polling from the start of the year to the latest survey.
Since Trump returned to the White House, Democrats’ views of the economy have tanked. Sixty-two percent of strong Democrats in January said the economy is growing. The latest poll shows only 17% of strong Democrats continue to hold that view. Meanwhile, the share of strong Republicans who say the economy is growing has increased from 22% to 64% during that same time period.
While the share of strong Republican voters predicting a recession in the next year has fallen, the share of Democratic and independent voters fearing one has increased since the start of the year, according to the poll which shows a similar partisan pattern on inflation.
But those economic fears have not yet materialized in voters’ assessments of their own personal economic situations, the poll shows. Twenty-six percent of voters say they are worse off economically compared to a year ago, the same share as the January poll.
When it comes to tariffs, voters across party lines agree that the import taxes mean they will have to pay more for goods. Ninety-two percent of strong Republican voters support the tariffs despite expecting to see increased costs.
“But I’m really curious to see how Republicans react once those prices start hitting their pocketbooks,” Detroit Regional Chamber President and CEO Sandy Baruah told reporters.
Some voters report changing some spending habits in response to tariffs, with about one-third saying they’ve delayed or sped up purchases. But again, the poll shows a big split by party affiliation with 93% of strong Republicans saying they’ve made no changes in timing their purchases in the past month as a result of tariffs, while 59% of strong Democrats report making adjustments, along with 48% of independents.
Fifty-four percent of of voters polled said tariffs would be bad for Michigan. But a majority of Republicans disagree. Three-quarters said tariffs will be good for the state.
The poll was released on the first day of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual policy conference gathering political and business leaders on Mackinac Island to discuss economic challenges and opportunities for Michigan.