The Significance of Polish American Voters in the 2024 Election

In the recent ABC News (Lean Left bias) debate, Vice President Harris attacked former President Trump on his Ukraine war stance through the lens of Polish American voters, prompting media dialogue on the perceived voting bloc.

For Context: There are nearly 9 million Americans with Polish ancestry, and over 2 million live in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

No Such Thing: Charlie Mahtesian of Politico (Lean Left bias) recounted the history of the Polish American vote through the 1900s, highlighting how defined of a bloc it used to be, but now concluding that it is “a phantom battleground constituency that doesn’t really exist anymore.” Mahtesian wrote that “Many Polish Americans… take great pride in their heritage” but attributed the dissolution of the voting bloc to “more than a century of assimilation, intermarriage, economic success and the fraying of ties with the ancestral homeland.”

Important Voters: A September 20 report from Newsweek (Center bias) described Polish Americans as an “influential community, (that) could sway critical battleground states.” Newsweek highlighted efforts from both Trump and Harris to target Polish American voters. NBC News (Lean Left bias) published a similar report that claimed “Polish American voters are having a moment” on the same day.

Common Ground: Michael O’Shea, writing for Hungarian Conservative (Lean Right bias), echoed Mahtesian’s conclusions for Politico and argued that for Polish Americans “whose hearts beat on both sides of the Atlantic, the more productive consideration is what this election signifies for U.S.–Poland relations.”