(The Center Square) – A national poll found that the majority of voters trust former President Donald Trump more on issues like inflation and immigration, while trusting Vice President Kamala Harris more on issues such as healthcare, abortion, and climate change.
While there were more issues that voters said they trusted Harris on, voters trust Trump on the issues that seem to matter the most to them going into Election Day.
This is according to the Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, which was conducted from Oct. 2-4 in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights and surveyed nearly 2,600 registered voters, including 1,135 Republicans, 1,162 Democrats, and 263 true (non-leaning) independents. It has a margin of error of 1.9%. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll is one of only six national tracking polls in the United States.
The poll asked respondents if they trusted Harris or Trump more on 10 different issues. They also had the option to say they were not sure.
Voters said they trusted Trump more on two issues: immigration (52%) and inflation (48%), the issues named the most important to voters in most national polling, including The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll.
On the other hand, voters trust Harris more on affordable housing (49%), healthcare (50%), abortion (52%), education (49%), uniting the country (45%), and climate change (50%).
The two candidates were nearly tied on trustworthiness on taxes and gun policy.
While it may seem that Harris has the advantage, David Byler of Noble Predictive Insights told The Center Square that it is important to flag that immigration and inflation are the issues that voters care the most about.
“It’s worth looking at which issues Harris and Trump win and which issues are the most important to the electorate,” Byler said. “Really, there are four key issues in this election – the economy, immigration, abortion and broad personality or personal qualities. Across this survey, Trump wins two issues – immigration and the economy – while Harris wins on personal qualities and abortion. That’s why this is such a close race.”
In the same survey, voters said they are concerned about inflation (47%) and illegal immigration (40%), the two issues that voters trust Trump to deal with better. Other top issues for voters included the economy (32%), abortion rights (26%), crime (22%), climate change (18%), and healthcare access (18%).
Trump has consistently polled better than Harris with voters on his economic policies and, when voters were asked to put aside “temperament and personality,” Harris and Trump’s policy ideas tied at 46%.
So, while Harris does better on a larger number of issues, those issues might not be deciding factors for voters.
“You’ll see . . . that on the biggest issues – such as immigration and on the economy – Trump is either ahead or close,” Byler said. “Harris, on the other hand, wins on abortion and a constellation of second-tier issues.”
On immigration, even 15% of Democrats say that they trust Trump more than Harris. Only on abortion and climate change do that many Republicans switch to Harris.
As for true independents, the majority said they trusted Trump on immigration, inflation, and taxes, while trusting Harris more on the other issues.
Elyse Apel is an apprentice reporter with The Center Square, covering Georgia and North Carolina. She is a 2024 graduate of Hillsdale College.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
