About four in 10 voters said their congressional vote was meant to oppose President Donald Trump, while an Associated Press poll found the economy topped the list of national concerns in the midterm elections.
Democracy ranked second among the issues voters were asked to identify, selected by roughly three in 10. The economy drew the largest share, at about four in 10; immigration and health care each received about one in 10, while few respondents chose crime or foreign policy.
Asked which factors mattered to their congressional choice, roughly half said the cost of living was crucial, and roughly half said the same about government corruption. About six in 10 disapproved of Trump’s job performance. Nearly three-quarters said the country’s direction left them angry or dissatisfied.
Four in 10 said their congressional vote was intended to oppose Trump. Just under two in 10 said they meant to support him, while about four in 10 said he played no role in their decision.
Reuters reported that a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found 48% of registered voters named cost of living as the top factor in their voting decision, compared with 26% who named democratic norms and 13% who named immigration. The survey covered 1,765 U.S. adults nationwide in the days before Election Day. It asked about the leading factor in respondents’ voting decisions, a different question from the AP poll’s question about the country’s top issue.
The AP Voter Poll, conducted before and on Election Day, adds to EconoTimes’ earlier coverage of cost-of-living concerns in midterm polling.
SSRS conducted the AP poll for The Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, FOX News Media, NBC News and Versant, surveying registered voters across all 50 states. The polling ran Oct. 19-Nov. 3 in Alaska and Oct. 22-Nov. 3 elsewhere, drawing on advance interviews as well as interviews at polling places in 15 states. The reported margin of sampling error for the full sample was plus or minus 0.6 percentage points.
