How important are family issues politically? Public opinion in the context of economic and cultural political cleavages

How politically important are family issues to voters overall and in the context of economic and cultural political opinion cleavages? We use data from the 2014 New Zealand Election Study to answer these questions. More than 60% of respondents claim that family issues–generally defined–were ‘somewhat’ or ‘very important’ when deciding whom to vote for in the 2014 elections, suggesting that family issues are viewed as politically significant. Many respondents have clear political issues in mind when it comes to family and there is a strong connection between believing family issues are important and holding more economic left-wing attitudes and cultural authoritarian attitudes. Qualitatively, there is strong agreement on the main family issues of importance among those who argue that their vote was influenced by family issues, with education and healthcare defined as the most important. However, crucial differences in the most commonly listed family issues occur between citizens depending on their positions on the economic and cultural left-right dimensions. Arguably, the relative importance of family issues opens a unique cross-cutting view into the socioeconomics of vote choice.