AAII Survey: What Issues Are Most Important to Voters in 2020

Voting season is upon us once again. With less than a year to go before the presidential election this fall, voters will decide who will be leading our country come 2021. Key issues that have historically driven presidential elections include the economy, health care, jobs and Social Security. However, a number of other issues like the environment, education and immigration have come to the forefront in shaping the 2020 presidential campaigns. Understanding how individual voters view the state of the country and which issues are most important to them can be a central element in understanding what happens in an election. In this week’s digest, we wanted to hear from AAII members on the issues they consider the most important and why.

We asked our members about their top issues with the following question:

At this point in time, what issues are most important to you in the 2020 presidential election?

Here are the results:

Nearly 2,000 members participated in this survey. Multiple selections were allowed.

Of the 2,000+ responses we received, the economy and health care ranked as the top two issues, with 24% and 18% of respondents, respectively, naming these as their top concerns. Other issues that rank highly on respondents’ 2020 importance list include and immigration (14%), the environment (11%), taxes (10%) and gun policy (9%). Just 6% of respondents listed education as one of their top concerns for the upcoming election.

Follow-Up Special Question

For many Americans, the days of general consensus seem long gone. According to a 2019 study by the Pew Research Center, there are no issues that are widely considered top priorities by both Democrats and Republicans today. However, in a time of growing partisanship, it can be helpful to hear out adversaries’ opinions, even if we don’t agree with them. Regardless of party affiliation, we are all Americans. We aimed to explore why AAII members consider certain issues more important than others at this time.

We followed up our poll with:

Why do these specific issues most concern you?

Of the 700 responses we received, those who named the economy as a top concern for the upcoming election cited unsustainability of the federal deficit, need for employment opportunities and strong markets that allow people to retire. Those who listed health care as a top concern said that the cost of health care is unaffordable for everyday people and that lack of access to health care will further strain our economy. The 14% of respondents who named the environment as a concern stated that without our planet’s health, all other issues will be irrelevant. Additionally, many within this group cited concern for the future generations if the planet’s resources are used unsustainably. Other reasoning for why respondents prioritize certain issues over others include: growing wealth inequality gap, protecting constitutional rights and bringing issues that are not being discussed enough to the forefront.

Here is a sampling of the responses we received to the follow-up special question:

• “Everyone needs some kind of health care protection. We need more legal immigration to fulfill our job needs and to provide relief to oppressed people and people living in danger. Solutions for climate change need to be discovered and implemented in order for our environment to be habitable for our grandchildren. Known solutions for climate change also need to be implemented.”
• “Deficit reduction. It is criminal to bankrupt the future for the wealth of the few in the present. It ties directly to our ability to navigate most of the balance of these issues.”
• “Everyone has a stake in the economy, especially seniors in retirement. However, they never seem to be part of the equation when it comes to raising taxes or other costs, be it at the local, state or federal level.”
• “I want a president who appoints judges to the courts who follow the Constitution and Bill of Rights, as the Founding Fathers intended. This alone will ensure that all things of importance are properly and lawfully addressed.”
• “Our education system is a mess. Health care is a mess, immigration is a mess. Taxes are not a problem, but the deficit is a mess.”