We surveyed 1,115 shoppers with the folks over at Smart Customer and found some hard numbers to explain your gut feeling: 51% of people have stopped buying from a company in the past year, due to its political affiliation. That figure jumped from just 30% back in 2024, an unprecedented increase from a Presidential election year to a Midterm year.

More takeaways from the survey:

• People care way more about this now: The share of shoppers saying a brand’s politics influences what they buy and the share who say it matters little or not at all flipped over the last two years. 67% now say politics is a relevant factor for them.
• Elections motivate people: Leading up to the Midterms, 39% say they intend to make a more conscious effort to align spending with political beliefs. That percentage is higher for likely voters.
• Shoppers will spend more to not destroy the country: 64% would pay more for a product from a company with aligned political beliefs.
• Data access is the main friction point: 60% say a business’s political affiliation would matter more to their purchases if they could easily see it while shopping.
• Democrats have boycotted the most in the last year. Those affiliated with neither party have boycotted the least.

Clearly, the endless headlines about businesses and their owners buying laws, favors, or freedom from accountability have actually changed buying habits. Over 50% of people have noted the persistent attempts to convert wealth into power and responded by keeping track of which businesses are facilitating the fire sale and buying from their competitors. This is good news because, for every business, there is a tipping point, a number of lost customers and lost market share that, once crossed, will convince the company to step away from politics or risk collapse. In other words, there’s a reason consumer activism always works. Keep it up.

Check out the rest of the key findings here