Study of U.S. Public Views on the Ukraine War and on Race, Ethnicity, and Religion

New University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll

The October 2022 University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll was fielded by SSRS on the Opinion Panel Omnibus platform.

The Critical Issues Poll has examined domestic and international issues central to policy discourse since 2016, when it was first established. It has reported on trends in American attitudes on a variety of top issues throughout the years, from policy decisions, to race relations, to responses to conflicts, and the prioritization of issues. This report focuses on two of the top issues in American public discourse: the Ukraine war and attitudes toward race, ethnicity, and religion. Since March 2022, one month after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Critical Issues Poll has fielded four polls on public attitude toward the U.S. response, studying the trends as the war develops. In addition, in May 2022, nearly two years since the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter Demonstrations, the Critical Issues Poll asked Americans their views on race, ethnicity, and religious discrimination in the United States.
In this report, we first analyze the trends on the Ukraine war, including diving into the demographic breakdown of how Americans want the U.S. to respond and what costs they are willing to endure. We then shift to look at how Americans respond to questions on race, ethnicity, and religion, studying how much perceived discrimination different racial and ethnic groups reported facing, the generational divide on perceived discrimination against different races and ethnicities, and the role of religion in American politics.