Defeating Trump a top issue for Iowa Democrats: poll

Democratic voters in the early voting state of Iowa say that while issues like health care and immigration are top concerns heading into the 2020 election, they are also interested in a candidate’s ability to defeat President Trump, a new poll finds.

Fully 10 percent of likely Democratic primary voters surveyed in a Monmouth University poll released Thursday said that defeating Trump was the most important issue for them heading into the next presidential election, surpassing issues like civil rights (8 percent), taxes (7 percent), Social Security (7 percent) and national security (4 percent). 

Overall, 51 percent of voters ranked health care as their top concern in the poll, followed by 29 percent who listed climate change or protecting the environment. Other top issues included immigration (14 percent), education (14 percent) and jobs (13 percent).

Over half of Iowa Democrats surveyed, 64 percent, said they would prefer to vote for a candidate who they didn’t agree with on some issues if it meant defeating Trump, while just 24 percent said that they would vote for someone who aligned with their issues even if that person was seen as unlikely to defeat the president.

And while some progressive lawmakers have pushed for Congress to begin efforts to impeach Trump, the poll found that just 16 percent of likely Iowa caucusgoers said a candidate’s support for Congress impeaching Trump was very important to them, while 22 percent said it was “somewhat” important.

“Ousting Donald Trump is the through line for this nominating process. But Iowa Democrats draw a distinction between beating the president at the ballot box and calling for his immediate removal. A candidate’s support for impeachment is not a litmus test for the party faithful,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Monmouth’s poll surveyed 351 Iowa voters who planned to participate in the state’s Democratic presidential caucus next year. The margin of error is 5.2 percentage points.