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Economic issues such as inflation are to be the biggest factor for Americans ahead of the midterm elections in November, according to a new poll from Monmouth University.
The poll, released on Monday, found Democrats care about a wide range of issues from climate change to abortion, but Republicans are focused on a narrower set of concerns: inflation, crime and immigration. Independents are concerned most about rising prices, according to the poll.
Overall, the poll found 82 percent of Americans rated inflation as an extremely or very important issue.
That was followed by crime (72 percent), elections and voting (70 percent), jobs and unemployment (68 percent) and immigration (67 percent).
About 57 percent of those surveyed ranked transportation and energy infrastructure as a top concern, followed by abortion at 56 percent.
Racial inequality is a top issue for 53 percent, followed by gun control (51 percent) and climate change (49 percent).
About a third of those surveyed said the COVID-19 pandemic was an extremely or very important issue and 31 percent cited student loan debt as a top concern.
The survey also found that more Americans (47 percent) want or would prefer Republicans to control Congress, compared to 44 percent who want or prefer Democrats—down from the 50 percent who said they want or prefer Democrats to control Congress in Monmouth's August poll.
Furthermore, the poll found that 30 percent of Americans approve of President Joe Biden's handling of inflation. The president received similarly low marks on other top issues: crime (32 percent), immigration (31 percent), abortion (31 percent) and gun control (30 percent).
"Democrats are all over the place when it comes to their key issues," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
"This makes it difficult for the party to create a cohesive messaging strategy to motivate its base. Republicans, on the other hand, just have to hammer away at rising prices and 'the wolf is at the door' to get their voters riled up."
A "major problem" for Democrats, according to Murray, is their "base messaging doesn't hold as much appeal for independents" as the GOP issue agenda does.
"Even though truly persuadable independents are a rather small group these days, this small difference can have a major impact given the expectation that congressional control will hinge on a handful of very close contests," he said.
"Because the congressional map favors the GOP, Democrats need to do more than 'keep it close' in order to hold onto their House majority. One roadblock for them is that the issue picture favors Republicans."
The poll was conducted from September 21 to 25 with 806 adults and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
Newsweek has contacted Murray for further comment.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more