How Important Was Immigration in the 2024 Election?
It was critical, especially to swing voters and some surprising demographic groups
By Andrew R. Arthur on November 27, 2024
Long before most in the media were paying attention to illegal immigration and even before Americans woke up to the crisis at the border, I was arguing that those issues were shaping up to be major concerns for the one electoral demographic that really mattered: the voters. Two post-election analyses from the Democratic polling initiative “Blueprint” reveal how overwhelmingly important immigration was to the critical swings voters who delivered Trump’s victory – and to some surprising demographic groups.
RealClear Politics publishes the results of various polls throughout the entirety of the Biden-Harris administration, including ones that register President Biden’s immigration approval ratings.
The last time that Biden received a net positive approval for his immigration performance was in June 2021, when he snagged a +4 rating in the Harvard/Harris poll, and a +2 in The Hill/Harris X poll that month. Thereafter, he was solidly in the red on the issue all the way up to the 2024 election.
As I pointed out that month, however, there were warning signs in the otherwise positive Harvard/Harris poll, with “immigration” coming in third (after “the economy/jobs” and the “coronavirus”) among voters’ top issues and with 81 percent of respondents opining that immigration was a “serious problem” (of whom 43 percent deeming it a “very serious” one).
https://cis.org/Arthur/How-Important-Was-Immigration-2024-Election
