Inflation, immigration top concerns among voters: Poll

Inflation and immigration are the top concerns among voters ahead of November’s general election, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released Monday. 

Thirty-six percent of voters said immigration was the most important issue facing the country, while 33 percent said the same about inflation and price increases. 

Thirty-eight percent of voters said that inflation was still the top issue affecting them personally, which was down 3 points from when the last poll was conducted in February. Twenty-one percent said that immigration was the top issue affecting them, which was up 4 points from last month. 

“Immigration continues to surge as an issue and the voters are sending a clear message for greater border security,” said Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll. 

“Inflation remains top issue though economic concerns have lessened from their peak. Issue concerns clearly favor Republicans at this point,” he said. 

The polling comes as Republicans continue to hammer the Biden administration for the flow of migrants over the southern border. A legal battle by Texas to arrest suspected illegal migrants has put a spotlight on its battle with federal authorities.

According to figures released by Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agents made 140,644 arrests of people trying to enter the country between legal border crossings during the month of February. The data represented a year-on-year increase but were still among the lowest for Biden’s tenure. 

The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey was conducted online and within the U.S. on Wednesday and Thursday among 2,111 registered voters.

Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party, and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.