A new poll from Gallup has found that Republican voters think the immigration woe facing America is the most important issue in the country.
Of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, the Gallup poll found that 22 percent believe immigration is the “most important problem” in America. Republicans rank the issue as more important than dysfunctional government, the economy, unemployment and healthcare–for which 20 percent, 17 percent, 12 percent, and 9 percent, respectively, said it was the most important.
Among Democrats, 11 percent believe immigration is the most important issue–making it their fourth-highest concern behind dysfunctional government, the economy, and unemployment.
Among all American adult voters, immigration is the second-highest important issue with 16 percent saying it’s the most important.
The poll comes in the wake of another recent poll from Tea Party Patriots, which found that 34.6 percent of GOP voters believe that stopping the flow of illegal immigration is the most important issue facing the nation–more important to GOP voters than getting to the bottom of the Benghazi or IRS scandals or halting Obamacare.
The poll also comes after Politico’s Jake Sherman wrote a detailed piece earlier this week about how neither side in a House race in Colorado are fighting on immigration–despite the political consultants who work for both previously girding for battle on the issue for the last year-plus.
“It was supposed to be here, in these diverse Denver suburbs, that the nation’s fiery immigration debate would dominate a competitive House race,” Sherman wrote from Aurora, Colorado. “The immigrant population is booming, evidenced by the more than 100 languages spoken at public schools here, the line of foreign flags displayed in the main atrium at City Hall and the bustling Latin and Korean restaurants that line the streets.”
But, he said, immigration is now “almost an afterthought in the tight battle between” incumbent Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) and Democratic challenger Andrew Romanoff.
Later in the piece, Sherman cites polling data that was “described” to him to argue that immigration isn’t a major issue among voters there.
“Internal, closely held polls demonstrate just how little voters here care about immigration reform. The sixth district surveys, described to Politico by multiple sources, show that the issue is not motivating either party’s voters to get to the ballot box,” Sherman wrote.
Sherman also quotes both Coffman agreeing with Romanoff that immigration is not a major factor in the race. “I think immigration is really important, but no, I don’t think that the race is any way a referendum on immigration reform,” Coffman said. “Not to say that it’s not important, but the race in no way hinges on that.”
Immigration, Romanoff concurred, is “a big issue, [but] it’s not the only issue.”
Coffman is a Republican member of the House who worked with now-former Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) to try to insert illegal alien protections for those who would join the military into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), something that led to Cantor’s electoral demise.
The Gallup survey was conducted via an aggregated sample of 2,001 American adults interviewed in July and August.