Key takeaways: A new national survey finds most voters prefer holiday togetherness to political division — about 75% are comfortable mixing across the aisle while 20% would avoid those with opposing views. About a third feel more grateful this year, 25% feel less so, and 42% are unchanged. Economic concerns are driving behavior: 44% plan to cut back on seasonal gifts, 11% will spend more, and 44% will maintain their usual spending.
Most Voters Choose Holiday Togetherness Over Political Divides, New Poll Finds
Key takeaways: A new national survey finds most voters prefer holiday togetherness to political division — about 75% are comfortable mixing across the aisle while 20% would avoid those with opposing views. About a third feel more grateful this year, 25% feel less so, and 42% are unchanged. Economic concerns are driving behavior: 44% plan to cut back on seasonal gifts, 11% will spend more, and 44% will maintain their usual spending.
06:40 AM, 11/21/2025Politics
With Thanksgiving a week away, a new national survey finds the majority of voters are willing to put political differences aside to spend time with friends and family. While one in five say they'll avoid people with opposing views, roughly three-quarters report they are comfortable mixing across the aisle — a share unchanged from the last time the question was asked in 2022.
Willingness to spend time across the aisle
Overall, 20% of respondents say they intend to avoid people whose political views differ from their own, while about 75% say they are comfortable spending time with them. There is broad agreement across party lines that most will not exclude relatives for political reasons, but Republicans (86%) are more likely than independents (71%) and Democrats (68%) to say they "won't avoid anyone."
Certain groups are more likely to opt out of partisan gatherings: Hispanics (31%), Democrats (30%) and voters under age 35 (30%) are among those most inclined to avoid the partisan dinner table.
Gratitude and economic pressures
On personal gratitude, 33% of voters say they have more to be thankful for this year, 25% say they have less, and the largest share — 42% — say their level of gratitude is unchanged heading into 2025. Groups reporting the biggest increase in gratitude include white evangelical Christians (46%), voters under 30 (45%), Republicans (45%), 2024 Trump voters (44%), and Hispanic voters (43%).
At the same time, most voters report higher costs across essentials like groceries and housing. Those financial pressures are reflected in holiday spending plans: 44% plan to cut back on seasonal gifts, 11% expect to spend more, and another 44% plan to keep their spending about the same. Liberal voters (57%), Democrats (54%) and women under 45 (53%) are among the groups most likely to say they will reduce gift spending.
Expectations about others' spending mirror personal plans: 47% think friends and neighbors will spend less on gifts this season, 16% expect others will spend more, and 35% foresee no change.
Survey methodology
The survey was conducted Nov. 14-17, 2025, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). It included interviews with 1,005 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file: live interviews on landlines (104) and cellphones (646), plus 255 respondents who completed the survey online after receiving a text. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is ±3 percentage points; subgroup margins are larger. Weights were applied to age, race, education and area to align the sample with registered voter benchmarks. As with all surveys, results may be influenced by question wording, question order and sampling limitations.