November 3, 2025

Christopher Newport University Students Weigh in on the 2025 Elections on Vote Choice and Policy Issues

Spanberger leads Earle-Sears by 38 points among CNU students in Governor’s Race

Summary of Key Findings

1. A large majority of CNU students intend to vote in the 2025 elections with 66% saying they definitely will vote and 24% saying they probably will.
2. In the Governor’s race, Democrat and former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger leads Republican Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears by 38 points (59% to 21%) among CNU students; 18% say they are undecided while 2% say they will vote for someone else.
3. In Virginia’s Lt. Governor contest, Democrat Ghazala Hashmi leads Republican John Reid by 32 points (54% to 22%) among CNU students; 23% remained undecided.
4. In the race for Attorney General, Democrat Jay Jones leads Republican Jason Miyares by 29 points (52% to 23%) among CNU students; 24% remain undecided.
5. Top of mind issues for CNU students include threats to democracy (21%), reproductive rights (17%) and cost of living/inflation (17%). Top issues vary somewhat by partisanship. Republican’s top issues include cost of living/inflation (27%) and immigration (15%), while Democrat’s top issues include threats to democracy (27%) and reproductive rights (25%). For Independents, top issues include threats to democracy (23%) and cost of living/inflation (18%), followed closely by reproductive rights (17%).
6. On immigration enforcement, a majority of CNU students think Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have gone too far in their actions (77%), while 17% say their actions are about right and 4% say their actions have not gone far enough. A majority of CNU students support allowing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements (80%) and allowing immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements (89%). A majority oppose deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country (70%).
7. When asked about parts of the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” CNU students oppose increasing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (71% oppose to 27% support), reductions in federal Medicaid spending (77% oppose to 22% support), lowering taxes for top income earners (79% oppose to 20% support) and ending tax credits for companies that produce wind or solar power in the US (63% oppose to 33% support). CNU students support lowering taxes for middle income earners (80% support to 18% oppose).
8. A large majority of CNU students (73%) either disapprove (27%) or strongly disapprove (46%) of the Trump administration substantially increasing tariffs on goods imported from most countries that trade with the U.S.
9. When CNU students think about or discuss concerns about “the economy” most think of inflation/cost of living first (63%), followed by federal government spending and the national debt (11%).
10. CNU students believe the president has too much power (69%) in the way the U.S. government operates these days while 27% say about the right amount and 1% say too little. 51% think Congress has about the right amount of power while 20% say too much and 25% say too little. For the US Supreme Court, 47% say it has the right amount of power, while 32% say too much and 16% say too little. For state governments, 50% say they have about the right amount of power while 37% say too little and 8% say too much. For local governments, 48% say they have too little power, followed by 43% who say about the right amount of power and 3% who say too much.
11. When it comes to approaches to reducing crime in the US, a large majority of CNU students feel that more money and effort should go to addressing social and economic problems such as drug addiction, homelessness and mental health (77%), while 19% say that more money and effort should go to strengthening law enforcement and 5% do not know. Most CNU students say that state governments should be most responsible for addressing crime prevention in the US (55%), followed by local governments (22%) and the federal government (20%); 3% say they do not know.

Graphic Sampling

Q2: Thinking about the election for governor… if the election were held TODAY would you vote for...If you are unsure, please indicate which candidate you are leaning toward right now.

Q5: From the following list of issues, which is top of mind for you when you think about voting in the upcoming elections?

Q6: What one word or phrase would you use to describe politics in the U.S. these days?

*Note: text size is in relation to the frequency with which a word was mentioned, with larger words indicating a higher frequency.

How the survey was conducted:

The results of this poll are based on 389 web-based responses from Christopher Newport University students conducted Oct. 7-22, 2025. The survey was written by the Wason Scholar survey committee in coordination with the Wason Research Director, Dr. Bromley-Trujillo. The survey was programmed in Qualtrics and disseminated to the CNU student population via email and through a QR code at CNU events. The margin of error for the whole survey is +/-4.5% at the 95% level of confidence. This means that if 50% of respondents indicate a topline view on an issue, we can be 95% confident that the population’s view on that issue is somewhere between 45.5% and 54.5%. The margin of error for subgroups may be higher. All error margins have been adjusted to account for the survey’s design effect, which is 1.002 in this survey. The design effect is a factor representing the survey’s deviation from a simple random sample and takes into account decreases in precision due to sample design and weighting procedures. In addition to sampling error, the other potential sources of error include non-response and question wording. Percentages may not equal 100 due to rounding. The data reported here are weighted using an iterative weighting process on race, ethnicity, and gender to reflect as closely as possible the population of CNU students.