When asked to respond in their own words, 36% of voters list the economy as the single most important issue right now. That's down 6 from last week's high of 42%.

In a distant second, at 14%, comes politics in general, while another 10% list social issues.

Notably, the combination of foreign policy (5%), Iran (3%), and war (1%)* has slipped to fourth place for voters. This is just the 2nd time since the war began that it has fallen from the top 3 in the open-ended responses, and the first time that total has been in the single digits.

Partisan Differences

The economy is the top concern for Republicans (35%) and Democrats (39%). After that, there are slight differences.

Still, this week, both parties have politics as their secondary concern, including 15% of Republicans and 14% of Democrats.

Twelve percent (12%) of Republicans see immigration as the top issue, giving it the third spot, but it is followed closely by social issues.

For Democrats, 11% say social issues are the most important right now, and nothing else hits double digits.

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 tool, 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 open-ended responses, economic issues are the top concerns.

Our most recent list-format results are included in our 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.

This data is from a Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters conducted online by Scott Rasmussen, September 14-15, 2026. RMG Research, Inc., conducted the field work for the survey. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1.