The recent overturning of landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade may have inspired dozens of protests, angry op-eds, and heated cable news debates — but a new poll released Tuesday suggests that one of the Democrats’ pet issues won’t even move the needle for voters come November.
According to the most recent Monmouth University poll, only 5% of those interviewed said that abortion was an important issue to them ahead of the midterm elections. Economic issues drove most of the responses from the 978 adults polled between June 23 and June 27, and some 6% said they didn’t know which issue was most important.
RealClearPolitics Executive Editor and co-founder Tom Bevan shared some of the data, tweeting, “More from Monmouth: biggest concern facing families right now: inflation + gas + economy + bills/groceries = 63%. Next highest: ‘Don’t know’ @ 6%, ‘Other’ and Abortion tied @ 5%, All the rest <3%.”
More from Monmouth: biggest concern facing families right now: inflation + gas + economy + bills/groceries = 63%.
Next highest:
"Don't Know" @ 6%
"Other" and Abortion tied @ 5%
All the rest < 3% pic.twitter.com/TWJPf1SwGp— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) July 5, 2022
Nearly half of those polled cited either inflation (33%) or gas prices (15%) as their primary concern — and another 15% cited the overall economy (9%) or regular household bills and grocery costs (6%) as primary issues.
“Add in healthcare costs, job security/unemployment, college tuition/school costs, and housing/mortgage/rent and economic-related issues hit 73%,” Bevan added.
Abortion, despite the media attention the issue has received since first the early opinion draft leak and then the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — which resulted in a 5-4 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey — hardly tipped the scales. Only 5% said it was an important issue, with the issue ranking slightly higher (9%) among only the Democrats polled.
A majority of voters appeared to blame the White House — or at least Washington, D.C. — for their economic woes as well. Over half (57%) said that “the actions of the federal government over the past six months have hurt their family when it comes to their most important concern,” and only 8% said that the federal government had helped them. A third (34%) said the federal government had not impacted their lives.
Over half (54%) also said that President Biden’s policies have done nothing to help the middle class — a nearly 20 point jump from the 36% who said this a year ago — and only 7% believe Biden has helped the middle class “a lot.” Over half (52%) said that Biden’s policies had not helped poor families either.
In addition to the issues driving voters to — or away from — the polls in November’s midterms, the Monmouth poll offered several other key takeaways as well.
First, not only did President Joe Biden score a new low approval rating at just 36% — with 58% disapproving — but he also marked a full year since his approval rating was last a net positive (48% approved and 44% disapproved in July of 2021).
An overwhelming majority of those polled (88%) said that the United States was heading in the wrong direction, and just 10% said the opposite.