The economy and immigration were among the key reasons voters backed former President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election, a new survey published by The Associated Press found.
Trump, the GOP nominee, was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election by the AP early Wednesday morning when he pushed over the required threshold of 270 Electoral College votes.
So far, he beat Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina and in 22 Republican-leaning states, securing him 277 Electoral College votes.
AP VoteCast, a survey of over 120,000 U.S. voters conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for several publications including the AP, found that voters cared about the cost of living and the influx of illegal immigrants coming through the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, they cared less about helping other nations in their ongoing conflicts, besides Israel in its fight against the militant groups of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Economy
After inflation hit a 40-year high in June 2022, following the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the economic prosperity of countries around the world, more Americans noted financial hardships and many voters were concerned about the cost of necessities like food, housing, health care and gas.
According to AP VoteCast, voters who said their family’s financial situation was “falling behind” climbed to roughly 3 in 10, which is up from about 2 in 10 during the 2020 presidential election.
Roughly 9 in 10 voters were very or somewhat concerned about the cost of groceries and around 8 in 10 were concerned about health care and housing costs as well as the price of gas.
Immigration
Americans’ attitudes toward immigration also changed from the last presidential election with voters now more likely to embrace harsher immigration policies, which Trump has run on in the past three election cycles.
Roughly 4 in 10 voters said that immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be deported to their country of origin, which is up from around 3 in 10 who believed so in the 2020 election. Most voters did believe immigrants living in the country illegally should be offered a chance to apply for legal status, but that was down from those who believed so in 2020.
Meanwhile, in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, about 8 in 10 Trump voters said they supported deportation over a chance to apply for legal status. The AP has yet to make a call on who won Michigan.
Foreign Policy
Voters are also more likely than in 2020 to adopt many of Trump’s isolationist stances. Trump has questioned the nation’s commitment to defend fellow member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and has called for a 10 to 20 percent tariff on all imports and a 60 percent tariff on Chinese imports.
Roughly 4 in 10 voters wanted the U.S. to take a “less active role” in solving global issues, which is up from around 3 in 10 voters who believed so in the last presidential election.
Most Trump supporters opposed continuing to send aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, which started in February 2022. But they did favor continued aid to Israel during the rising conflicts in the Middle East following the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza.
The margin of sampling error for voters in the AP VoteCast survey was estimated to be plus or minus 0.4 percentage points.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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