Other issues trump coronavirus in US election
Polling shows that coronavirus is far from the number one issue for the majority of Americans, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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Australians may think that COVID-19 is the central issue in next week’s U.S. presidential election but speaking to Democrats and Republicans in the key swing state of Pennsylvania it’s clear that other issues trump the virus.
For the past week I’ve been talking to the good folk of The Keystone State who have been wooed heavily by both candidates with repeat visits, election promises and an obscene amount of TV commercials.
In that area the Democrats are outperforming or to be more precise out-spending the Republicans by two to one. It is not unusual to see three pro-Biden or anti-Trump ads back to back.
When you speak to the locals about what issues will determine their vote the bulk of Democrat voters mention getting rid of Trump, followed by race relations, health care and coronavirus.
Republicans mention the economy, energy policy particularly fracking, and first and second amendment concerns.
Pew Research Centre data released last week shows that far from being the key issue of the election the coronavirus outbreak ranks behind the economy (74 per cent), health care (65 per cent) and Supreme Court appointments (63 per cent).
The coronavirus outbreak was next with 55 per cent of registered voters ranking it as “very important” to their vote in the 2020 presidential election. Other top issues include foreign policy (51 per cent) and abortion (44 per cent).
If you dig a little deeper the research shows that Democrat voters rank coronavirus far higher than Republicans. And, there is a significant racial divide when it comes to the issue.
Only 49 per cent of white voters consider the coronavirus outbreak as ‘very important’ to their vote compared to 82 per cent of black voters and 63 per cent of Hispanic voters.
The Pew Research Centre data backs up polling conducted by Gallup, released earlier this month, showing registered voters consider the economy the number one issue among 16 key policy areas.
Among registered voters 89 per cent said the presidential candidates’ positions on the economy is “extremely” or “very” important to their vote followed by terrorism and national security (83 per cent), education (82 per cent), healthcare (80 per cent), crime (79 per cent) followed by the response to the coronavirus (77%).
It may seem strange to Australians that COVID-19 isn’t ranked higher but that doesn’t mean Americans don’t take the issue seriously. But the view among many is that COVID-19 is here to stay and we have to learn to live with it.
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