The economy is the most important issue to voters in the presidential election, and that could bode well for former President Donald Trump, according to a new Gallup poll.
Asked to rank 22 issues, 52% of registered voters say the presidential candidates' positions on the economy are an "extremely important" influence on their vote, according to Gallup. Another 38% of voters say the economy is "very important."
Thus, the issue could be a significant factor to 9 in 10 voters in deciding whether Trump, the Republican nominee, or Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat nominee, wins the White House.
The current 52% of voters rating the economy as being "extremely important" is the highest share since October 2008 during the Great Recession, when 55% of voters said the same.
Whereas 66% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters say the economy is extremely important to their presidential choice, only 36% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents agree.
When combining the extremely and very important ratings for the economy, the results are 98% among Republican/Republican-leaning voters and 82% among Democrat/Democrat-leaning voters.
The economy is the top-ranked issue for Republican voters, but it is not among Democrat voters' top five issues.
In 2008, the economy was the top issue for both parties.
The Gallup results show that voters view Trump as better able than Harris to handle the economy by 54% to 45%.
Trump also has an edge when it comes to the handling of immigration (plus-9 percentage point advantage) and foreign affairs (plus-5).
Slim majorities of U.S. voters think Trump would do a better job than Harris when it comes to handling immigration (54%) and foreign affairs (52%).
Voters say Harris is better on climate change (plus-26), abortion (plus-16), and healthcare (plus-10).
The two presidential candidates evenly matched when voters are asked who would be better to address gun policy.
The poll found that less than half of voters overall agree with Trump (49%) or Harris (47%) on the issues that matter most to them.
Besides the economy, no other issue is considered "extremely important" by most voters, though majorities consider most issues as "extremely" or "very important."
Four issues are extremely important to between 41% and 49% of voters. They are democracy in the U.S., terrorism and national security, the Supreme Court, and immigration.
Just two issues, climate change (50%) and transgender rights (38%), are considered as extremely or very important to their presidential vote choice by less than a majority of voters.
The Gallup poll was conducted Sept. 16-28 by telephone among a random sample of 1,023 voters. The margin of sampling error is plus/minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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