Three-in-Four New Hampshire Residents Support Official English

Residents of first-in-the-nation-primary state strongly in favor of legislation

According to a new poll, almost three-in-four New Hampshire residents support making English the official language of the United States, giving prospective presidential candidates a winning issue to discuss on the campaign trail. A Mason-Dixon poll of New Hampshire residents found that 73 percent support Congressional legislation to make English the official language, with 59 percent strongly supporting such an effort and only 22 percent in opposition. The poll of 625 New Hampshire registered voters was conducted June 6-8, 2007 and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percent.

“New Hampshire residents may be proud of their personal linguistic roots, but they are strongly supportive of government doing business in our unifying language of English,” said Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of the Board of U.S. English, Inc. “As presidential candidates clamor for primary voters, I urge them to remember that common language legislation is not a partisan issue, it is an American issue.”

Earlier this spring, the subject of official English legislation arose in both the Democratic and Republican presidential debates held in the Granite State. While all the Republican candidates in attendance indicated their support for making English the official language, former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel was the only Democratic candidate to back common language legislation. The recent New Hampshire poll demonstrates that official English receives majority support among Democrats, Republicans and Independents, at levels of 60 percent, 82 percent and 78 percent, respectively.

Efforts to promote assimilation and language learning by conducting government business overwhelmingly in English are embodied in several bills pending in Congress. H.R. 997, the English Language Unity Act, introduced by Rep. Steve King, has 107 bi-partisan co-sponsors. In the Senate, S. 1335, the S.I. Hayakawa Official Language Act was introduced by Sen. Jim Inhofe in May. On June 6, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a similar amendment by Sen. Inhofe to the immigration bill that would have made English our national language and reduced government multilingualism. More than one-third of Democrats approved the amendment in the 64-33 vote.

To date, 30 states enacted official English legislation, including three in the last eight months. New Hampshire made English the official language of the state in 1995.

U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 1.8 million members.