Newsweek polling suggests the issues most influencing American voters are changing.
Abortion has overtaken immigration to become the second most important issue for voters heading into the 2024 election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Newsweek polling suggests.
Over the past 16 months, a series of polls conducted byRedfield & Wilton Strategies ahead of the November 5 election asked participants: “Which issues are most likely to determine how you vote in the November 2024 Presidential Election? You may select up to three.”
Only four issues out of 24 were repeatedly selected by more than two in five respondents: the economy, abortion, immigration and healthcare.
The economy was named the most important election issue for voters in every survey conducted since July 2023, regularly being cited by around 60 percent of respondents.
Abortion and immigration have both been competing for second place across the arc of the polling, but abortion was the issue that has risen most, and has overtaken immigration in recent months.
Abortion was cited as a key issue by 21 percent of respondents in the first poll of July 2023, and was cited by 38 percent of respondents in the latest poll of October 2024. By contrast, immigration was cited as a key issue by 30 percent of respondents in the first poll of July 2023, and was cited by 36 percent of respondents in the latest poll of October 2024.
Immigration has been the second most commonly cited issue by men, while abortion has consistently ranked as the second most important issue for women.
This data is based on polling conducted exclusively by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek between July 2023 and October 2024. Altogether, 19 polls were conducted, asking cumulatively 34,800 eligible voters about the key issues of the 2024 election.
As the 2024 election approaches, the most pressing concerns for voters will be taking center stage in the campaigns of Trump and Harris. The race remains neck-and-neck, wider polling suggests, and may ultimately come down to just a few thousand votes in key battleground states like Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.
“In such a highly contested political context, neither candidate can afford to yield ground on any issue—whether the economy, reproductive rights, immigration, democracy, or the rule of law”, Cary Coglianese, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Newsweek.
Healthcare was identified as a main issue for about one in three voters each month. It placed second in the polls conducted in 2023, but has been in fourth place across the last several polls of 2024.
