A large majority of Americans say they are at least somewhat interested in news about local laws and policies and local elections. But there is not quite as much interest in local politics as there is in national politics.
For example, 81% of U.S. adults say they are at least somewhat interested in news about presidential elections, including 54% who say they are extremely or very interested. A slightly smaller majority of Americans (70%) express interest in news about local elections, with 34% expressing a high interest level.
At the local level, Americans are slightly more likely to say they are interested in news about local laws and policies (42% extremely or very interested) than about local elections (34%).
There is no difference between the two major political parties in how interested people are in news about their local elections. However, a slight partisan difference exists in the interest in presidential elections. Republicans and independents who lean Republican (86%) are modestly more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners (81%) to say they are at least somewhat interested in news about presidential elections.
Those who feel more attached to their community are more likely to be interested in local political news (details are in Chapter 3).
Americans’ satisfaction with their local political news
Our survey asked respondents who get news about several local topics how satisfied they are with the quality of the news they get in each area.
Among Americans who get news about local government and politics, a quarter report being extremely or very satisfied with the quality of news they get on that topic. This is a lower level of satisfaction than for just about any other topic included in the survey.
When it comes to consumers of local political news, 52% indicate they are somewhat satisfied with its quality, while 23% say they are not too or not at all satisfied.
By contrast, 63% of those who get news about local weather say they are extremely or very satisfied with it.
Similar shares of Republicans and Democrats (including those who lean toward each party) are extremely or very satisfied with the quality of local political news they get – 24% and 26%, respectively.
Americans who get local political news more often are more likely to be satisfied with it. Similarly, those who feel more attached to their community are more inclined to be satisfied with the quality of local political news. Read Chapter 3 for details.
Is it easy enough to find information needed to make voting decisions?
One possible explanation that we explored for the relatively low level of satisfaction with local political news is that many Americans say it is not easy to find the information they need to make voting decisions in their local elections.
Fewer than half of U.S. adults say it is very easy (17%) or somewhat easy (28%) to find the information they need to make voting decisions in local elections. About one-in-four say it is either very (5%) or somewhat (18%) hard to find this information, while an additional 27% say it is neither easy nor hard.
There is a large gap between the share of Americans who are at least somewhat interested in news about local elections (70%) and the share who say it is at least somewhat easy to find the information they need to make voting decisions in local elections (45%). The pattern is similar for presidential elections (81% vs. 59%).
