The Spring 2026 Vanderbilt statewide poll surveyed 1,203 registered Tennessee voters from April 13 to April 29, 2026. The poll categorized respondents by political affiliation and is conducted semi-annually by Vanderbilt University’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions under the direction of political science professors John Geer and Josh Clinton. With a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, the poll’s questions focused on the economy, artificial intelligence in healthcare, elected officials and international and domestic concerns. 

In an interview with The Hustler, Geer shared the goals of the poll, emphasizing its importance as a way to provide knowledge to the Vanderbilt community, Nashville and the state of Tennessee. 

“Polls [are] useful for various political actors and the public to understand. The purpose of the poll is to simply provide this service to the community and to the state,” Geer said. “We’re not trying to push any particular agenda, but rather, we have a set of questions we always ask, and then we have a set of battery questions we ask. This time, we asked all battery questions about AI and healthcare.” 

The Spring 2026 poll results display widespread concern about the rising cost of living for Tennesseans and concerns regarding AI in healthcare. The poll also indicates decreased approval for President Donald Trump since Fall 2025 while approval for Gov. Bill Lee, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Sen. Bill Hagerty remains comparatively consistent.   

Widespread economic anxiety 

With a 7% increase from the spring 2025 poll, half of respondents now describe the cost of living as “very expensive.” An additional 38% say the cost of living is “somewhat expensive.” The poll also suggests that 49% of Tennesseans express some level of anxiety about affording food, housing and transportation.  

Geer stated that this economic anxiety is widespread across political affiliations. 

“The results are pretty clear that the public are concerned about the economy — and it’s not just true for Tennessee, it’s across the country,” Geer said. “And this comes up whether you’re a liberal Democrat or a MAGA Republican. People are worried about the cost of living.”  

Political sentiment  

Forty-nine percent of respondents believe that Tennessee is “on the wrong track,” while 50% believe it to be in “the right direction.” However, on the national level, sentiment is more negative: Fifty-eight percent of respondents deem the United States “on the wrong track” while 42% believe the country is moving in the right direction. 

Geer explained that Trump’s declining approval ratings among the poll’s respondents are related to economic concerns.  

“There’s a general belief that, well, the state’s doing a little better than the nation, that the country’s on the wrong track. You can see that in any number of indicators, especially regarding the cost of living,” Geer said. “There’s worries about being able to just afford monthly expenses, and this has led to a decline in Donald Trump’s support in the state.” 

Approval for Trump has dropped 7% since the fall 2025 poll. Geer attributes this decline in support of registered independents’ ratings. The poll also found that approval from respondents who identify as independent declined 10% from when the poll was conducted in spring 2025.  

“Trump still has unbelievable amounts of support within the MAGA movement: [His approval ratings] declined from 98 to 94 [%] — that’s still amazing,” Geer said. “Where he’s suffering is among independents; he’s losing support among independents.” 

Additionally, the poll has found that approval for Lee, Blackburn and Hagerty have remained stable, declining only about 3% since the November 2025 poll.  

Respondents also agree that the U.S. should prioritize domestic issues rather than international conflicts. A breakdown of the political affiliation of those polled reveals that this belief is held across party lines, including 83% of independents and 69% of MAGA supporters.  

Artificial Intelligence 

The poll also surveyed Tennesseans’ opinions regarding integration of AI in healthcare. Democratic and Republican sentiments were largely aligned on this issue.  Almost 60% of respondents who identified as Republican polled that they were comfortable with AI assistance in their healthcare and 54% of respondents who identified as Democrats reported the same sentiment. 

In a message to The Hustler, Clinton explained the findings indicate that individuals support integration of AI but not its replacement of doctors.  

“What the results show is that most people have concerns about privacy when it comes to the use of AI to help manage their health care,” Clinton said. “They support its use to help them get access to care, but they want doctors, not chatbots, interacting with them and helping them with their health.” 

Clinton also stated that the results demonstrate that Tennesseans across party lines recognize the potential benefits but remain concerned about data privacy. 

“Unlike nearly every other issue in contemporary politics, this is not an issue that divided Democrats and Republicans — members of both parties share similar concerns,” Geer said. “Our results show that although there may be a tremendous potential to help improve health care access and diagnosis, most Tennesseans have concerns about their privacy and strongly prefer a human rather than a silicon interaction.” 

Forty-nine percent of all respondents polled that they “strongly agree” with the statement that they would rather work with a doctor than use AI to improve care efficiency. Twenty-two percent say that they “somewhat agree.” However, 69% of those surveyed further indicated that they were uncomfortable with the use of AI for medical treatment without the presence of doctors, while half of the respondents believed the substitution of AI for physical doctor appointments is “not at all important.”  

 While 54% of respondents report belief that some healthcare processes can be made more efficient with AI, 68% worry about health data privacy (44% indicated that they were “strongly concerned,” and 24% say that they are “somewhat concerned”). A further 60% indicate that it is “very” or “somewhat important” for AI to be used to minimize human errors.