A new poll shows strong public approval for a proposed DOGE Dividend check—a potential one-time payment to tax-paying households that would be funded through cost savings from the Department of Government Efficiency.
Poll Finds 7 In 10 Americans Support A DOGE Dividend Check
The survey, conducted by J.L. Partners on February 24-25 among 1,001 registered voters, found that there was “overwhelming cross-party support” with 67% of Americans backing the proposal and 46% strongly supporting it. Notably, “One in four Democrats and almost half of independents say receiving the dividend will make them more likely to vote for a Republican congressional candidate,” the poll found.
While a DOGE Dividend check is still conceptual, the J.L. Partners poll, which has a margin of error of 3.4%, is one of the first to assess voter sentiment towards DOGE Dividend checks and the results may buttress President Donald Trump’s support for the checks even more.
Bipartisan Support For A DOGE Dividend Check
Support for a DOGE Dividend check is bipartisan. Scarlett Maguire, director of J.L. Partners, said: “There is clear, cross-party support for the DOGE Dividend, with even Democrats strongly in favor of the idea. Americans believe that it would make citizens more likely to report first-hand examples of government waste and fraud.”
While 83% of Republicans surveyed favor the plan, 58% of Democrats who responded also approve. Participants identifying as independents largely align with this sentiment (61% approve), demonstrating broad appeal across the political spectrum. Support within the poll also cut across all income categories too and across white- and blue-collar workers.
When asked how receiving a DOGE Dividend check would make them feel, the most common responses given were “happy,” “relieved,” and “excited.” The idea that the federal government could fund direct payments by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse appears to resonate with the public. A majority (56%) also said receiving the check would increase their trust in the government.
Another poll from Napolitan News Service of 1,000 registered voters found that 59% support returning 20% of DOGE’s savings to Americans. Republicans overwhelmingly support it, while Democrats are evenly divided,” Napolitan said in a statement obtained by Center Square, a conservative news website.
In many ways, bipartisan support for a government payment doesn’t come as a surprise. During the pandemic, despite polarization about many policies, sending an additional stimulus check had strong support among Americans of both parties, with 82% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans favoring another stimulus check, according to a 2020 Franklin Templeton-Gallup Economics of Recovery Study.
DOGE Dividend Check Could Draw Votes To Republicans
Perhaps most notably, 24% of Democrats and 29% of independents said receiving the check would make them more likely to vote for a Republican congressional candidate in the upcoming elections, the poll revealed. Furthermore, 20% of those who voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election said that a DOGE Dividend check would make them more likely to vote for a Republican congressional candidate in 2026.
There was some incredulity right after the DOGE Dividend check proposal was announced. “We don’t need it now,” said Dana of Westport, Mass., in an interview Boston’s CBS affiliate, WBZ News Trump is “trying to bribe people into liking him. And it’s like, I don’t like him. I’m not going to be bribed into liking him. When we were in the pandemic, the people needed the money. Now, what’s it for?” However, the J.L. Partners poll results implies that the “bribe” could very well work: One in three Democrats said they would feel more positively toward Trump if they received the DOGE Dividend check.
James Fishback, the advisor who came up with the concept of a DOGE Dividend check, suggested that the payments be distributed after DOGE finishes its work in July 2026. If payments are indeed distributed, the poll results indicate that the checks could help boost Trump’s favorability right before the midterm elections.
Skepticism Around A DOGE Dividend Check Remains
Despite public enthusiasm for a DOGE Dividend check, significant skepticism remains. Economists and policy analysts have questioned whether the projected savings from waste reduction would be sufficient to fund such a large-scale payout. The Speaker of the House also threw cold water on the idea of a DOGE Dividend stimulus check according to The Hill. “Well, look. I mean, politically that would be great for us, you know, it gives everybody a check,” Johnson said. “But if you think about our core principles, right, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. That’s our brand. And we have a $36 trillion federal debt, we have a giant deficit that we’re contending with. I think we need to pay down the credit card, right?”
Additionally, the proposal’s structure—providing payments only to taxpayers— likely excludes millions of low-income Americans who do not pay federal income taxes. This raises concerns about fairness and the potential for unintended consequences, such as disincentivizing workforce participation in the long run.
More Polling Needed To Analyze Support For DOGE Dividend Check
The J.L. Partners poll is the first to specifically elicit public support for a DOGE Dividend check. J.L. Partners received a “high credibility” and “least bias” rating from MediaBiasFactCheck, a website widely used to assess political bias and factuality of a source. It has a 1.6 (out of 3) star rating from FiveThirtyEight, but that is only based on a two-poll sample. Additional polling data would be helpful to validate (or refute) the sentiment from the J.L. Partners poll.