Californians trust state government more than the federal government, survey shows

Californians have more faith in their state government leaders working together than in the federal government to do the same, a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found.

When it comes to trusting government leaders to work together in 2023, the survey shows that Californians are more optimistic about Gov. Gavin Newsom working with the State Legislature than President Joe Biden working with Congress.

The findings are part of the ‘PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and their Government,’ and they show that 61% of Californians are optimistic about the state government working together, compared to 27% believing the same for the federal government.

In fact, there are similar margins when broken down by demographic groups. All groups hold a similar view, but African Americans (71%) and Latinos (68%) are more optimistic about the state government than Asian Americans (54%) and whites (57%), the survey shows.

Those same groups’ trust in the federal government’s leaders is 39%, 38%, 19% and 18%, respectively.

Democratic Californians overwhelmingly trust the state government leaders to work together, with 81% saying they are optimistic about it, compared to 31% of them saying that federal leaders will collaborate.

27% of Republican Californians say they think the state’s leaders will together this year, while 12% think the nation’s leaders will do the same.

Californians’ overall trust in government is low

Trust in either government is generally low, but more Californians have faith in state leaders than in federal leaders, the survey found.

The survey gauged Californians’ overall trust in the government. When asked if they “trust government just about always or most of the time,” 46% agreed with the statement when it refers to state government, compared to 32% saying the same for the federal government.

The groups that trust the state government the most are Democrats (69%), Los Angeles residents (59%) and Latinos (53%).

Outside of those groups, “fewer than half across parties, regions and demographic groups say they can trust either the state or the federal government to do what is right just about always or most of the time,” the survey found.