The New York Times Poll, ‘Immigration’, and American Democracy ‘Under Threat’
For a small but important part of the electorate, uncontrolled immigration is an existential danger
By Andrew R. Arthur on November 1, 2024
On October 25, the New York Times released its last pre-election poll, largely reported on because it showed Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump tied at 48 percent apiece in the 2024 election. Read deeper, though, and you will find a more interesting — if less immediately salient — fact: A large swath of the electorate views “immigrants/ immigration” as a threat to American democracy. That’s an unfortunate but likely inevitable result of nearly four years of bad border policy.
That poll was conducted between October 20 and 23, and surveyed 2,516 likely voters, with a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.2 percentage points.
“What One Issue Is Most Important?” Before I get to that question, first note that respondents to that poll were asked: “What one issue is most important in deciding your vote this November for president?”
“The economy (including jobs and the stock market)” was the leading response, the choice of 27 percent of the likely voters polled. The economy is an evergreen issue in any election, so that was no surprise.
Tied for second were “abortion” and “immigration”, at 15 percent respectively.
https://cis.org/Arthur/New-York-Times-Poll-Immigration-and-American-Democracy-Under-Threat
