Breakdown Of What Issues Voters Care About The Most

Top Concerns Amongst 2018 US Midterm Election Voters By Demographic Groups

As a follow-up to our election polls, we sent exit polls on Election night (November 6, 2018) to our users who had voted earlier that evening.  Similar to other exit polls, we asked our Mei users “What issue do you care most about?” and provided 20 options, aggregated from several popular polls.

Out of 786 responses from our voting users, the top issue was “Dissatisfaction with Government/Poor Leadership”.  Our overall results, i.e. the distribution and ranking of issues, were fairly consistent with other exit polls.  However, since we gathered demographic data, we’re able to show the breakdown with better granularity than most polls.

Some highlights we found when breaking down the responses by age, gender, race, and state follow.

By Age

  • “Immigration” was disproportionately high as the top issue among voters age 40 and over
  • “Guns/School Shootings” was a top concern more for people 25 and under (possibly still in school) and 35+ (possibly with school-aged children)
  • The 26-34 group cared more about “Healthcare” than other groups
  • People in their early 30s cared the least about the “Economy in General” while those in their late 30s cared the most about “Taxes” compared to other groups

By Gender

  • Generally, men cared more about economic/money issues than women
  • More women cared most about social issues and violence

By Race

  • White voters accounted for the majority of our sample size and drove the broader trends
  • Black voters cared disproportionately more about the “Economy in General” and disproportionately less about “Education” and “Immigration” compared to other groups
  • Latino voters care more about “Immigration” than any other group
  • Asian voters cared the least about economic issues amongst the groups. “Guns/School Shootings” and “Education” were the top issues after leadership

By State

  • “Dissatisfaction with Government/Poor Leadership” was the top concern in about half the states
  • Western states of Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota and Kansas cared most about “Education”
  • NJ and MA cared most about the “Economy in General”
  • Immigration was top in Oklahoma and Iowa
  • Connecticut cared most about “Taxes”