Government corruption ranked behind the cost of living as a single voting issue among likely U.S. voters, while separate polls found broader concern ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The Guardian reported that The Harris Poll surveyed 2,065 U.S. adults online from Oct. 22-24, including 1,481 likely midterm voters. Among likely voters, 36% named the cost of living as their top issue and 12% chose government corruption. Immigration drew 9%, health care 7% and taxes 5%. For the survey, corruption meant officials putting personal or donor financial interests ahead of the public interest.
In a companion analysis, The Guardian reported that 87% of respondents viewed government corruption as a problem. The outlet also reported that 40% said Republicans had the bigger corruption problem, 21% named Democrats and 32% said both parties had the problem equally.
A Fox News poll conducted Oct. 9-12 among 1,202 registered voters found 60% were extremely concerned about government corruption, compared with 58% who were extremely concerned about inflation. Fox reported that voters trusted Democrats over Republicans to handle corruption by 10 percentage points. The poll measured levels of concern, rather than asking voters to select their single top voting issue.
An August Reuters/Ipsos poll found 74% of 1,166 U.S. adults surveyed said corruption influenced federal government decisions “a great deal” or “quite a bit.” In the same poll, 51% said corruption under President Donald Trump was worse than under other recent administrations, 22% said it was better and 24% said it was about the same.
The surveys asked different questions, so their results describe separate measures of voter priorities and concern. They do not establish whether corruption concerns will change turnout or voting decisions.
The Federal Election Commission lists the general election for Tuesday, Nov. 3. Voters will choose all 435 members of the House of Representatives and roughly one-third of the Senate, according to USAGov.
