How Have Americans’ Top Issues Changed Heading Into The Elections?
Since April, we’ve partnered with Ipsos to ask the same group of roughly 2,000 Americans about which issues concern them most as we head into the elections. Now that Election Day has finally arrived, here’s a little roundup of the trends we’ve noticed and what factors could very well play a role in how voters cast their ballots tonight.
In all six waves of our FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos survey conducted using Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel, we asked Americans which issues were most important for the country. “Inflation or increasing costs” was mentioned by the greatest share of respondents in every wave of polling. Rounding out the top three issues were “crime or gun violence” and “political extremism or polarization,” which switched spots a couple times — “crime or gun violence” moved from third to second in the aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and then back to third in September.
Some issues have moved up and down in the ranks more drastically. We’ve seen surges in issues like “abortion” and “climate change” over the past six months of polling. Abortion ranked 16th in our first wave but fourth after the Dobbs ruling at the end of June. It’s held steady as a middle-of-the-pack issue since then.
In the last three months, “climate change” and “immigration” have consistently ranked fourth and fifth, driven largely by partisan differences, with Democrats ranking climate change as among their top issues and Republicans selecting immigration. By October, immigration edged out a lead as the fourth-ranked top issue overall.
And while Americans are split on many issues, it seems they can agree on at least a few things. America is divided. They’re concerned about crime and gun violence. And above all else, inflation continues to be looming at the top of most Americans’ minds.