Immigration Overtakes Inflation As Top Voter Concern In 2024: POLL

Immigration has overtaken inflation as the top concern for voters in 2024’s elections, according to a survey released on Monday by The Harris Poll for Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies (CAPS).

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election, along with Republican candidates nationwide, have sought to make illegal immigration and the United States’ international border with Mexico a top political issue, owing to the high number of illegal crossings by foreign nationals during President Joe Biden’s term. The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll showed a 36% plurality of respondents ranked immigration as the top issue facing the country, beating inflation and cost-of-living issues, which 33% reported as being the top issue.

“When people ask themselves the Reagan question: ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’, the answer increasingly is no,” said Mark Penn, co-director of the poll for Harris, according to Cision PR Newswire. “The sizable number of independent voters who are still undecided will determine this election, and they continue to be personally concerned about the border crisis and their grocery store prices.”

Among respondents, 53% of Republicans and a 37% plurality of independent voters ranked immigration as the top issue, while a 26% plurality of Democrats ranked inflation as their top issue. Immigration was also identified as the top issue by pluralities of white voters (39%) and Hispanic voters (41%) as well as suburban voters (40%).

Additionally, 57% of respondents believed that Biden inadequately addressed immigration during his State of the Union address to Congress on March 7. A 46% plurality also indicated that Biden’s biggest failure while in office was that he “[c]reated an open borders policy and a historic flood of immigrants,” with that rating being 21% higher than his perceived failures on inflation.

The survey was conducted between March 20 and March 21 among 2,111 registered voters across the United States, with the margin of error being 3 percentage points.

The Biden and Trump presidential campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment.