A national tracking poll released Wednesday by Morning Consult and Politico revealed that 50 percent of registered voters view passing health care reform as “a top priority,” while a further 29 percent believe reform should be passed but not as a top priority.
When asked which political party they trusted to get the job done in Congress, 48 percent said Democrats, while 35 percent said Republicans and a further 17 percent were undecided.
Respondents viewed health care reform as one of the top issues for Congress to address, with the most popular issues focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. “Controlling the spread of the coronavirus” was a top priority for 76 percent of respondents, while 69 percent said the same about stimulating an economic recovery after the pandemic.
Issues that respondents cared about the least about were regulating tech companies and building a wall along the Mexican border, with only 15 and 22 percent viewing them as top priorities, respectively. Building a wall was the only issue that a plurality of voters, 38 percent, said “should not be done.”
Congressional Democrats and Republicans fared significantly different on some but not all questions about who voters trust to solve specific issues. Democrats had a tiny edge over Republicans on immigration, 43 percent to 41 percent. Republicans had an even smaller advantage on gun policy, 41 percent compared to 40 percent for Democrats.
Democrats enjoyed larger advantages on the issue of “protecting Medicare and Social Security,” where they were trusted by 47 percent compared to 33 percent for Republicans.
Handling the coronavirus and education were also issues where Democrats had an advantage, while the biggest gap in trust came on issues of the environment and sexual harassment in the workplace. Republicans were trusted by 21 percent fewer respondents on the environment and 16 percent fewer on sexual harassment.
The issues that Republicans were most trusted on were the economy, jobs and national security. Republicans were trusted by 44 percent of respondents while Democrats were trusted by 39 percent on both the economy and jobs. The biggest Republican advantage was on national security, where 45 percent trusted Republicans compared to 36 percent for Democrats.
The poll also asked voters several questions concerning potential running mates for former Vice President Joe Biden in November’s presidential election. A large majority of respondents, 75 percent, said the choice would have no or only “minor” impact on their vote, while 17 percent said it would have a “major” impact.
A series of questions matching Biden and a hypothetical running mate against President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence showed Biden and each running mate beating the incumbents by between 4 and 7 percent.
The poll was conducted online from a sample of 1,997 registered voters between July 24 and July 26. It has a margin of error of 2 percent.
