The Issues Facing Voters This Mid-Terms
More details will be added over the coming weeks.
Last updated: August 9, 2022
The Biden Admin has been dealing with the highest inflation in decades.
More details to be added
The US has had a difficult year when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic but the virus is a central issue, mostly for Democratic voters.
As many as 82% think the pandemic is a key issue compared with 24% of Trump voters.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden has made Trump’s handling of the pandemic the central tenet of his campaign argument, criticising the president for hosting large rallies without people wearing masks and for downplaying the seriousness of the virus.
Indeed early missteps in the handling of the pandemic led to heavy criticism of Trump’s administration. The US president previously refused to wear a face mask, which led to their politicisation.
Many of the problems in getting control of the pandemic in the US also stemmed from a lack of testing and faulty tests that were sent across the country by the centres for disease control and prevention in February.
The US continues to be the most impacted country in the world by the numbers with 8.5 million confirmed cases and more than 220,000 deaths.
The economy is one of the top issues for American voters, who have seen unemployment skyrocket amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Pew Research Centre found in August that the economy was the top issue for 76% of respondents. It was more important for Republican voters, however than Democratic voters.
President Donald Trump has said that Democrats would lock down the country and harm the economy.
“Joe Biden would terminate our recovery, delay the vaccine and annihilate Nevada’s economy with a draconian unscientific lockdown,” Trump claimed at a rally recently.
The US is dealing with the same economic fallout as many other parts of the world, with GDP falling 32% in the second quarter of 2020, according to the Commerce Department.
US unemployment also hit record lows this past year, hitting 7.9% in September after reaching an all-time high of 14.7% in April.
Many Republicans have praised Trump’s tax reform plan, which was viewed as a large overhaul of the tax system that resulted in tax cuts for many Americans. Taxes were down about 25%, according to H&R Block, a company that assists with tax preparation.
Trump has claimed that he created the best economy but many say the trends mainly continued from the economy he inherited from predecessor Barack Obama.
“Americans are well known historically for focussing on the economy. In 1992, Bill Clinton’s slogan in the campaign was ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ and basically that’s been the case in most presidential elections,” said David Redlawsk, a professor and political psychologist at the University of Delaware.
The protests also led to a national conversation on policing, with Trump running a campaign to be a “law and order” candidate.
Many conservatives have been concerned about left-wing calls to defund police forces in favour of social and community services.
Trump has claimed that candidate Joe Biden cannot use the words “law enforcement” when speaking.
At the Republican National Convention, a couple from St Louis, Missouri who threatened protesters with guns outside their home, said: “Your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America.”
Republicans are also concerned about Democratic proposals to change the criminal justice system, including ending cash bail that often impacts low-income Americans.
Candidate Joe Biden wants to reduce the number of incarcerated individuals in the country, specifically those incarcerated for drug use alone.
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