Hurricanes Lead to Surge in Voter Concern about Immigration
Who knew FEMA was funding the settlement of illegal border-crossers?
By Andrew R. Arthur on October 18, 2024
In my last post, I examined a recent Harvard-Harris poll and noted it revealed that immigration was the second-biggest issue behind inflation on voters’ minds headed into the election, ahead of abortion, healthcare, and jobs. There are two questions from that poll I did not discuss, but they likely show why immigration is such a hot topic now – all due to three disasters (Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and one at the border) and the federal government’s responses thereto. Let me explain.
Fox News Poll
Before I begin, though, here’s a brief recap: That Harvard-Harris poll of 3,145 registered voters was conducted between October 11 and 13, just about two weeks after Hurricane (and then Tropical Storm) Helene cut a swathe of destruction through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and eastern Tennessee. Rural sections of the Appalachians were particularly hard hit.
I’ll return to that destruction, but respondents in that poll were surveyed with the images of devastation still fresh in their minds.
It revealed that 14 percent of registered voters named “immigration” as the single issue that mattered to them personally, trailing only inflation (46 percent) and ahead of abortion (11 percent).
At roughly the same time that poll was being conducted, Fox News was surveying respondents for a poll of its own, which was released on October 16. That one surveyed 1,110 registered voters.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Hurricanes-Lead-Surge-Voter-Concern-about-Immigration
