Democrats, Republicans Driven By Different Issues This Election

The economy remains the number one issue for all voters this election cycle, but Republicans are a lot more worried about national security than Democrats and unaffiliated voters are.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 37% of all Likely U.S. Voters say the economy and jobs is the most important issues to their vote for president this fall. Twenty-nine percent (29%) see national security and the War on Terror as most important. Illegal immigration comes in a distant third with 12% support, while eight percent (8%) see the environment as most important. Five percent (5%) consider race and gender policy to be the most important election issue, but seven percent (7%) place the most importance on something else not named in the survey. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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The surveys of 1,000 Likely Voters each were conducted on August 1-2, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error for each survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.