In advance of Russell Vought’s first-ever congressional testimony as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) scheduled for the week of July 13, 2026, a new poll found that, across the political spectrum, likely midterm voters approved of the CFPB, with four in five expressing support.
Voters also supported restoring CFPB protections – for overdraft fees, credit card late fees, privacy, and payment apps – that were cancelled during the current Trump Administration. A bipartisan polling team from Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting conducted the poll and it was commissioned by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and Americans for Financial Reform (AFR).
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The newest poll from the bipartisan polling team Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting provides fresh evidence that the overwhelming majority of voters across the political spectrum support the mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to protect consumers and the agency’s work to crack down on overdraft fees, credit card late fees, and big tech payment apps. The new findings are consistent with previous opinion research demonstrating widespread, intense public support for the CFPB’s work.
Voters across party lines overwhelmingly believe that it is important to regulate financial services and products to protect consumers, and they believe we need more – not less – regulation of financial companies.
- Voters near-unanimously believe it is important to regulate financial services and products to make sure they are fair for consumers (92%) with very wide and strong support across party identification.1
- A two-thirds majority of voters (67%) support more government regulation of financial companies such as Wall Street banks, mortgage lenders, payday lenders, debt collectors, and credit card companies.2
- A large majority of Democrats (83%) and majority of Republicans (59%) support more government regulation. Independents are less certain but still support regulation by a wide margin (+24 net support).
Large majorities of voters continue to be supportive of the CFPB across party lines and categorically oppose attacks on the agency.
- Four out of five voters favor the CFPB (80%) after hearing a short description of the agency and its mission, including the vast majority of Democrats (86%), more than two thirds of independents (69%) and more than three quarters of Republicans (77%).3
- In a head-to-head debate, voters continue to support the CFPB – including independents and Republicans – even when it is described as an unaccountable, expensive federal bureaucracy that costs jobs and impedes economic growth.5
- After hearing opposing and supporting arguments, seven out of ten voters (70%) say that we need rules to guard against dangerous financial products, including eight in ten Democrats (81%), a majority of independents (56%), and nearly two thirds of Republicans (63%).
- Republican voters maintain their opposition to attacks on the CFPB by a sizable margin (+18 net oppose) even when these attacks are attributed to Republicans in Congress.6 They also oppose elimination of the CFPB when the effort is attributed to President Trump by a similar margin (+16 net oppose).7
- Overall, roughly two thirds of voters oppose attacks on the CFPB by Republicans in Congress (64%) or President Trump (67%).
A wide majority of voters across the political spectrum support protections on overdraft fees, credit card late fees, payment apps, and actions to safeguard peoples’ privacy put in place by the CFPB during the last administration but reversed by the Trump Administration or Congress.8
- More than eight in ten voters support capping credit card late fees at $8 and overdraft fees at $5 (82% each), including healthy majorities of at least nine in ten Democrats, over three quarters of independents and weak partisans, and over three quarters of Republicans for each policy.
- Eight in ten voters support regulating payment apps (such as Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App) to stop bad practices that harm consumers (81%), including three quarters of independents and weak partisans (74%), nine in ten Democrats (90%) and eight in ten Republicans (80%).
- Voters are near-unanimous in their support of stopping financial companies from selling consumers’ personal data (90%), with a high degree of consistency across party lines – well over eight in ten Republicans, Democrats, and independents (including weak partisans) support the policy – and essentially zero opposition at all.
1 How important is it to regulate financial services and products to make sure they are fair for consumers?
2 Generally speaking, do you think there should be more government regulation of financial companies, such as Wall Street banks, mortgage lenders, payday lenders, debt collectors, and credit card companies, or less regulation of these companies?
3 Now here is a description of a federal agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB. The CFPB, established in 2008, is the first federal agency whose mission is protecting consumers when they use mortgages, credit cards, bank accounts, payment apps, and other financial products and services. Its mission includes preventing deceptive, unfair, and abusive lending and collection practices by banks, fintechs and other companies. From what you know about the mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, would you say you favor or oppose the CFPB?
5 Now here are two statements about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB. Please indicate which one is closer to your own view, even if neither is exactly right [ROTATE STATEMENTS]. Does that statement come much closer or only somewhat closer to your view?
6 SPLIT SAMPLED: As you may have heard, Republicans in Congress are trying to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Would you say you favor or oppose Congress eliminating the CFPB?
7 SPLIT SAMPLED: As you may have heard, Donald Trump is trying to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Would you say you favor or oppose President Trump eliminating the CFPB?
8 SPLIT SAMPLED 4-WAY: Now, thinking again about the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), several of CFPB’s consumer protection rules have recently been cancelled or overturned by Congress. For each of the following cancelled rules, please indicate if you would support or oppose reinstating that rule?
Methodology: Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting designed and administered this survey, which was conducted online from May 15-21, 2026. The survey reached a total of 1,000 likely November 2026 voters nationwide. The sample was stratified by gender, age, region, race, party identification, presidential vote, and education level to reflect the demographic composition of likely voters nationwide. Where there were slight differences between our survey sample and the expected voting population, data were weighted accordingly. The margin of error is +/- 3.1% for the full sample and larger for subgroups and split-sampled questions. Numbers do not always add up to 100% due to rounding and refusals.