Subject: NY Dems want public-interest policy experts; not corporate executives/lobbyists. Demand Progress and Empire State Indivisible conducted a short scientific poll of 500 likely Democratic Primary voters in New York State. The poll, focusing on Joe Biden’s cabinet picks, was run by YouGov and has a MoE of 4.9%

Context: Leading up to the 2020 general election, opinion leaders and top media outlets consistently reported Joe Biden’s platform for president was, as Barack Obama called it, “the most progressive of any major party nominee in history.” As debates and discussions shape up over the President- Elect’s cabinet and other leadership positions in his administration, we conducted a poll to assess the opinion of the Democratic base in the home state of the Senate Democratic Leader. Democratic Primary voters in New York State overwhelmingly believe that “the goals and values of Biden’s platform” should be of paramount importance when making selections, and that individuals such as academics, policy experts, and public interest advocates would be better advocates than appointments with corporate executive or lobbying backgrounds.

Key Findings – Biden’s Picks Democratic Primary voters clearly favor public interest advocates, academics, and policy experts to advocate for the goals and values of Biden’s campaign platform:

• A majority of 76% said that corporations and corporate lobbyists have too much influence in federal government. Only 4% thought they didn’t have enough influence and 9% felt they had about the right amount. • When asked what kind of nominations Biden should choose for “positions which oversee and regulate big corporations, the financial sector, energy policy, healthcare, and the military,” 75% said he should nominate “people who have experience as policy experts or public interest advocates and are not been employed by those industries,” and only 7% felt he should nominate executives and lobbyists employed by those industries. • With respect to having bi-partisan support: only 21% said it was more important to them for Biden to nominate “people who will have the support of Democrats and Republicans alike,” while 68% said in was more important to nominate “people who will advocate for the goals and values of Joe Biden’s platform.” • For out of five respondents (79%) were of the opinion that “academics and public-interest advocates” would better help the Biden administration address key priorities such as the COVID pandemic, the economic crisis and unemployment, and other campaign priority issues. Only 5% felt that corporate executives/lobbyists would better help the administration.

Key Findings – Senator Schumer Democratic Primary voters in New York State not only are clear about their preferences for Biden’s cabinet picks, but they overwhelmingly feel Chuck Schumer – the Democratic leader in the Senate – should advocate for picks who reflect the goals and values of Biden’s platform even if Republican leaders don’t like them:

• An overwhelming majority of 81% of respondents said that Senator Schumer should advocate for cabinet appointments who reflect platform goals and values, as opposed to only 5% who said he should advocate for appointments that Mitch McConnell would also support. • A similar majority (78%) said that Chuck Schumer should support the approach of using recess appointments or the vacancies act “to fill cabinet positions with people who will help advance the goals and values of [Biden’s] platform, without them being blocked by Senate Republicans.” Only 4% said that Schumer should oppose such a procedural process.

New York Democrats are quite clear on what kind of cabinet positions they would like to see, and they overwhelmingly want their senior Senator to push Biden to fill cabinet positions with people who have shown they advocate for the goals and values of Biden’s progressive campaign platform. They believe that corporate executives and lobbyists have too much influence in national politics, and do not believe they should oversee agencies which regulate major industries or that they would most effectively address the priorities of the new administration.