Post-Debate Poll Reflects Voters’ Fears of Migrant Crime, Terrorism
Democrats aside, the electorate can see the costs and threats and are fed up with the political games
By Andrew R. Arthur on July 5, 2024
As national news outlets pored over polls conducted after the June 27 debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, one immigration-heavy poll — conducted by the Harris Poll and Harris X for the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University — has been largely ignored. Both sides should take a look at it, because it reveals that American voters are increasingly concerned about criminal activity and terrorism threats emanating from the Southwest border. It also shows that the electorate is at best ambivalent about — but not fooled by — the president’s recent executive actions, which most believe are more political than practical.
That poll was conducted online between June 28 and 30, with the Harris Poll and Harris X surveying 2,090 U.S. voters.
Biden Approval on Immigration. Respondents were asked whether they approved or disapproved of the president’s handling of 12 separate subject areas, ranging from “the economy” to “meeting our energy needs”.
Prior to the October 7 Hamas attacks into southern Israel, Biden generally received his lowest grades for his handling of immigration. Not anymore, though it’s close: just 33 percent of respondents approved of Biden’s response to the “Israeli-Hamas conflict”, one point lower than the grade voters gave him for the job he is doing on both inflation (34 percent) and immigration (again, 34 percent).
To put Biden’s 34 percent approval rating on immigration into context, however, that is the lowest grade the president has received on his handling of the subject in the past 25 months (since May 2022), and a six-point decline in a month (he received 40 percent approval for his handling of immigration in May).
https://cis.org/Arthur/PostDebate-Poll-Reflects-Voters-Fears-Migrant-Crime-Terrorism
