President-elect Donald Trump’s surprising popular vote victory reflected many things, including nostalgia for low inflation and peace in the Middle East, distrust of establishment elites, and the kingmaker role of one antiestablishment titan, X master Elon Musk. Yet pundits have ignored empirical evidence that the free speech voters Musk tried to mobilize may have made the difference in a close race.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan pro-free speech group, commissioned NORC at the University of Chicago to implement a nationally representative survey of 1,022 people, conducted three weeks before the election. While most respondents expressed concerns about inflation, healthcare, crime, abortion, and immigration, 63% considered free speech a “very important” election issue. Only inflation scored higher at 68%.