With so much on the line, is there a right way to make those tradeoffs? That means voters will need to make multidimensional choices, weighing their various values against each other to select a single candidate. Come November, voters will need to select candidates whose platforms represent a gradient of positions on these issues. Still, unless voters are weighing in on a referendum question or a proposition, they’re rarely voting on a single issue. adults say the issue is extremely (52 percent) or very (28 percent) important to their vote. Gun violence isn’t far behind, though: According to the same poll, 80 percent of U.S. adults say that the economy is extremely (53 percent) or very (32 percent) important to their vote. The poll shows that among Republicans, inflation (48 percent) ranks first followed by immigration (16 percent) with no other issue reaching double digits.Īmong Democrats, gun violence (22 percent) ranks first followed by abortion (14 percent), inflation (14 percent), election laws (12 percent), and climate change (11 percent).Īnd among independents, inflation (41 percent) ranks first with no other issue reaching double digits.Ī recent Gallup poll also shows that the economy will weigh heavily on voters’ minds at the polls. Taken separately, Democrats’ and Republicans’ priorities shift, however. Voters ranked gun violence second (12 percent). A Quinnipiac poll last month shows that 34 percent of all voters ranked inflation as the most urgent issue facing the country today.
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His estimation is borne out in recent voter polls. “That doesn’t mean that January 6 isn’t going to loom large in voters’ minds, but generally speaking, I don’t expect anything will exert as powerful an influence in November as gas prices, inflation, or other economic issues.” “Economic considerations are rarely eclipsed as a top priority for voters in elections,” says Costas Panagopoulos, political science professor at Northeastern University. What, among these issues, will matter most to voters? It’s likely to be the impact on their wallets.
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Photos by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University and Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University Portraits of Costas Panagopoulos, political science professor at Northeastern University and Rory Smead, associate professor of philosophy at Northeastern. 6 attack on the Capitol that may well amount to criminal conspiracy, states restrict or outlaw abortion access, and hate crimes skyrocket, all while inflation reaches its highest point in decades. 8, high-profile gun violence makes headlines again and again, a Congressional committee investigates the Jan.
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If not, it doesn’t.īut this year, with a veritable bingo-card of polarizing issues on the table, might the midterms be viewed as a litmus test for voters’ morals, instead?Īs the U.S. If citizens approve of the job the president is doing, his party typically fares well. Midterm elections-those which occur near the midpoint of a president’s four-year term in the United States-are typically viewed by policymakers as a referendum on the president’s party.