When asked to respond in their own words, 36% of voters list the economy as the most important issue right now. In a distant 2nd, at 14%, comes the combination of foreign policy (7%), Iran (6%), and war (1%)*.
Politics (11%) consistently finishes in 3rd place.
Partisan Differences
The economy is the top concern for Republicans (33%) and Democrats (38%). After that, there are slight differences.
Republicans: The war in Iran (16%), and immigration (10%) are their other top concerns.
Democrats: Politics (15%) and the war in Iran (11%) rank 2nd and 3rd for Democrats.
Behind the Data
There are many ways to ask about the importance of issues. Napolitan News routinely asks an open-ended question that is categorized and summarized by using Jigsaw's open-source Sensemaker too, which is built on top of Gemeni, Google's most advanced AI, so that voters can answer the question in their own words.
Consistently, whether given a list or in the open-ended responses, economic issues are the top concerns.
Our most recent list-format results are included in this same August 24-25 poll. In those results, the economy, inflation, and health care are voters primary concerns.
*When tracking open-ended responses throughout the war in Iran, we have grouped foreign policy, Iran, and war into a single category.
