(For Washington’s Legislature, voters list economic issues as the top priority.)

The mood of Washington voters heading into a second Trump administration has dropped considerably, according to a Cascade PBS/Elway poll.

When asked to assess how things will go in the next year in the country, state, respondents’ communities, and their households, all four categories dropped compared to last September. Outlooks had been on the rise leading up to last fall’s election.

Yet, the poll of registered voters also found that more people predicted things would get better for the country rather than worse, 49 percent to 45 percent. Outlooks for Washington, however, contributed significantly to the downward trend. Only 36 percent predicted things would get better in the state, the second-lowest since the question was first asked by pollsters in 1992. 

Just more than half of respondents expected Donald Trump’s second presidency to have a negative impact on their lives, directly or indirectly. Yet 51 percent also said Washington should comply with, rather than resist, Trump’s plan for the unprecedented deportation of millions living in the United States without documentation. 

While self-identification with the two major political parties had been trending up during the Biden administration, the number of those claiming they would register as independents climbed back to 36 percent, higher than identification for either Democrats (35 percent) and Republicans (20 percent). 

“It could be that people are simply exhausted by the partisan conflict and ready for a break from parties,” said pollster Stuart Elway. “Voters just gave Democrats total control over state government, but identification with the Democratic Party dropped to its lowest level since late 2017. At the same time, willingness to identify with the Republican Party dropped five points since last year and is just two points above its all-time low.”

For the 2025 state Legislature session that started in January  in Olympia, voters once again listed economic issues as their top priority for lawmakers. Within that category, housing costs continue to be cited by many voters. 

To deal with state budget deficits, 66 percent preferred to cut programs, versus just 25 percent who’d rather raise taxes. Washington, home to employers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and T-Mobile, has no state income tax. But if taxes were to be raised, 57 percent said they should be targeted at wealthy individuals, rather than the public as a whole. More than 60 percent favored revising the state’s tax structure. 

The poll was conducted Dec. 26-30 last year with 403 registered voters. About 35 percent of respondents participated in live phone calls, and about 65 percent participated online after text-message invitations. 

The poll has a margin of error that means had the same survey been conducted 100 times, the results would be within 5 percentage points of the reported results at least 95 times.

Elway Research Inc., which conducted the poll, is based in Seattle. Its partner in the poll, Cascade PBS, is a non-profit journalism site covering the Pacific Northwest.