Why more Americans are taking politics to the checkout

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Politics is increasingly shaping where Americans shop, with a new survey finding that 51 percent of consumers stopped buying from a company because of its political stance in the past year.

The shift is gaining significance days before the November 3 midterms, with 39 percent of surveyed shoppers saying they intend to align their spending more closely with their political beliefs.

Companies may face greater scrutiny over their political positions and spending, although consumer-behavior experts caution that what people tell pollsters they intend to do does not always translate into what they ultimately buy.

Political Boycotts Rise Ahead of 2026 Midterms

The new findings suggest political disagreement can now lead shoppers not only to abandon a company but also to actively support another. While 51 percent said they had stopped buying from a company over its politics during the previous 12 months, 47 percent said they had purchased from a company specifically to support its political position. Among the latter group, 83 percent also reported having boycotted a company.

The behavior cuts across party lines, although not evenly. Sixty-four percent of Democratic-leaning respondents reported boycotting a company over politics, compared with 47 percent of Republican-leaning respondents and 32 percent of shoppers who leaned toward neither party. Income was also associated with differences in the survey: 60 percent of those in households earning at least $100,000 reported a boycott, compared with 35 percent of those in households earning less than $50,000.

Potts told Newsweek that political frustration and greater public attention to corporate political involvement may be contributing to the behavior.

"There's a deep sense of frustration with the political system, and many people now see their purchasing power as one of the few levers they can still pull," he said.

But Timothy Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, urged caution about concluding that political considerations dominate purchasing decisions.

"At the end of the day, most people make purchase decisions based on product quality and pricing," Calkins told Newsweek.

That tension is important to interpreting the poll. Its findings show what respondents report doing and intending to do. They do not demonstrate that politics has overtaken traditional factors such as price, quality and convenience throughout the marketplace.

Will Americans Really Pay More for Brands That Share Their Politics?

Perhaps the survey's most striking finding concerns price: 64 percent said they would pay more for one of two equal-quality products if the company behind it shared their political beliefs. Forty-three percent said they would pay at least 6 percent more.

Lai said that finding surprised him, but acknowledged that the survey measured intentions. He pointed to a different result, the 47 percent who reported already buying from a company to support its political stance, as an indication that political preferences can be connected with purchasing behavior.

Aleksandra Kovacheva, associate professor and chair of the marketing department at the University at Albany's Massry School of Business, told Newsweek that willingness-to-pay findings warrant particular care because of what researchers call the "intention-behavior" gap.

"It's hard to tell whether consumers will actually pay a higher price based on a survey question like this," Kovacheva said. "The intention-behavior gap can be especially large for willingness-to-pay measures."

Political agreement can nevertheless add value for consumers when a brand's position reflects something closely connected with their identity, she said. In those circumstances, a purchase can become a way of expressing personal values rather than simply acquiring a product.

The benefit has limits, however.

"Political alignment can add to the value a brand already offers, but it's unlikely to compensate for a product that doesn't meet consumers' needs," Kovacheva said.

Why Consumers Boycott Brands Over Politics

Consumer psychology provides one explanation for why a disagreement with a corporation could produce an apparently unrelated decision at the cash register.

Kovacheva said brands can convey values and group membership beyond the function of their products. When consumers believe a company has adopted a position that clashes with an important part of their identity, distancing themselves from it can become a way of expressing that disagreement.

"Boycotting can also serve as a way to take action against a company, driven by anger and a desire to punish the brand," she said.

Whether consumers actually switch is another matter. Kovacheva identified the availability of substitutes as an important consideration because existing shopping habits can be difficult to abandon. A consumer may object to a company's politics but continue buying its product if competing choices do not deliver comparable price, quality or convenience.

Her assessment offers an important qualification to the headline numbers. A poll can capture sentiment toward companies and politics, but it cannot establish that every reported intention will become a transaction.

"I may say I won't buy a brand because of its political stance, but still pick it up at the store because of its cost or convenience," Kovacheva said.

Timing could matter, too. Political issues may be unusually prominent immediately before an election, she said, meaning attitudes recorded now may not persist at the same intensity months later.

What Politics Matter Most to Shoppers?

Some issues appear substantially more likely than others to enter consumers' purchasing calculations.

Forty-one percent of respondents identified abortion and reproductive rights as something on which a company's position could affect their purchases, followed by diversity, equity and inclusion policies at 39 percent and immigration at 38 percent.

LGBTQ+ issues and religious freedom followed at 37 percent each, while workers' rights and unions and free speech were each selected by 36 percent. Climate and the environment ranked next at 35 percent, followed by healthcare (34 percent), support for a specific candidate or party (33 percent), economic policy (30 percent), gun policy (29 percent) and foreign conflicts (24 percent).

All 13 political issues tested in the survey were selected by at least 20 percent of respondents, while 14 percent said political issues did not affect where they shopped.

Political affiliation was associated with different priorities. Half of Democratic-leaning respondents identified abortion and reproductive rights, making it their leading issue, while 37 percent of Republican-leaning respondents selected religious freedom as their top issue. Abortion, DEI, LGBTQ+ issues and immigration nevertheless appeared among the five leading issues for both groups.

Kovacheva said consumers can use brands to communicate both what they believe and the groups with which they identify. But she cautioned against assuming a survey can reveal whether shoppers are primarily attracted toward companies that share their views or repelled by businesses they see as part of an opposing political group.

"Public opinion polls can tell us what consumers are thinking, but not necessarily what they'll do, or what any particular brand should do," she said.

Corporate Political Spending and Consumer Trust

Consumers also indicated that they want more information. Fifty-three percent said companies should be more transparent about their political positions, while 22 percent wanted those positions kept private. In 2024, 41 percent had said companies should keep their politics private.

But transparency and trust are not synonymous. Thirty-five percent said their trust in a company that disclosed its political donations would depend on who received the money; only 22 percent said disclosure would increase their trust regardless of the beneficiaries. Separately, 49 percent said determining where corporate political donations and lobbying money go was either difficult or required effort, while 28 percent said they did not know such information was available.

Jon Golinger, democracy advocate at Public Citizen, told Newsweek that he sees disclosure as essential both for consumers and corporate accountability.

"Corporate political spending transparency is essential to a fair and free marketplace and it reduces risks and builds public trust," Golinger said. He argued that disclosure can reduce the reputational risk created when previously unknown political spending emerges and allows consumers to assess whether a company's spending matches its public positions.

Goods Unite Us, which partnered on the survey, operates a platform allowing users to research the political activity associated with thousands of companies, including information on party lean, issues and politicians receiving donations.

The Risk for Brands Taking Political Stances

Still, the survey finding that consumers care about corporate politics should not be read as a mandate for companies to adopt positions on every contentious issue.

Calkins said companies normally have a powerful reason to avoid unnecessarily dividing their customer bases.

"Most brands work very hard to avoid taking a stand on controversial issues," he told Newsweek. "It is difficult to attract customers, so a firm logically doesn't want to alienate some of them by taking a controversial stand."

There are exceptions when an issue is closely connected to an established brand identity, Calkins said, citing Patagonia and environmental issues as an example. His broader advice was restraint: "Companies have to be very disciplined when it comes to political issues. It is tempting to express a point of view, but there is limited upside in most cases and a lot of downside."

Kovacheva similarly cautioned companies against interpreting political consumerism as evidence that shoppers necessarily expect every business to enter political debates. Brand identities take years to establish, she said, while political circumstances can change much faster.

"Ultimately, a political stance can give consumers additional reasons to identify with a brand and love it, but it can't replace a great product," she said.

How the Midterms Could Intensify Political Shopping

The survey arrives immediately before elections that will determine control of Congress for the second half of President Donald Trump's term. All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are being contested on November 3, along with gubernatorial elections in 36 states. Republicans currently control both chambers.

Thirty-nine percent of the SmartCustomer survey respondents said they planned to shop somewhat or much more in accordance with their politics before the election. Among respondents who said they intended to vote, that figure reached 45 percent. Nearly half of all respondents, 49 percent, anticipated no change in their shopping habits.

Kovacheva said the proximity of the election could be magnifying political considerations.

"The midterms are likely increasing the salience of political beliefs and making political differences feel more important," she said. "That heightened attention may not last."

Lai expects politically motivated purchasing to outlast November but said its intensity may fluctuate around news events. The survey, he noted, found that 60 percent said corporate politics would become a greater consideration if political-affiliation information were easier to see while shopping.

For businesses, that leaves a more complicated conclusion than simply choosing whether to speak up or remain silent. Consumers increasingly tell pollsters that politics influences their relationship with brands, but those preferences differ by party, income, age, issue and circumstance. And, as Kovacheva put it, the durability of a brand cannot depend solely on the politics of one election cycle.

"A strong brand needs to be built on something more enduring than a particular political moment," she said.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Amanda Castro and Rhian Morgan.

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