WASHINGTON — Republicans are still preferred to Democrats among Americans concerned about crime, immigration and the economy, according to a new poll released last week with fewer than 14 months remaining before the midterm elections.
The Washington Post/Ipsos survey found a plurality of US adults trust the GOP to do a better job handling crime (44%), immigration (42%) and the economy (39%).
By contrast, just 22% of Americans prefer the Democratic approach to crime, 29% like the party better on immigration and 32% favor Dems on the economy.
President Trump has made crime a major focus of his administration, authorizing the deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, and federal task forces to other major urban centers like Memphis to arrest repeat offenders and seize guns or drugs.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, an elected Democrat, touted instances of violent crime plummeting in the nation’s capital by 45% in the first weeks of Trump’s takeover when compared with the same time period last year, though other big city Democratic mayors have rebuffed offers of federal assistance.
The president’s immigration agenda has also been successful in keeping illegal border crossings at a record low.
“It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders,” Trump lectured world leaders in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. “Your countries are going to hell.”
“Once we started detaining and deporting everyone who crossed the border and removing illegal aliens from the United States, they simply stopped coming,” he added. “They’re not coming anymore.”
At times, federal judges have put a check on Trump’s bids to end some expansions of humanitarian parole programs begun under former President Biden and swiftly deport illegal migrants to other nations. However, the Supreme Court has largely ruled in the president’s favor on appeal.
Markets dipped following the 47th administration’s April announcement of reciprocal tariffs — but stocks rebounded as major trading partners struck deals with the president and members of his cabinet.
Inflation has also stayed low enough amid the tariff rollout for the Federal Reserve to move forward with an interest rate cut this month, even as the jobs market cooled down in August.
According to the Ipsos/Post survey, one-third of Americans said they didn’t like either major party’s approach to crime, while 28% said the same when it came to immigration and the economy.
“At this particular point, the ball may be on the ground but the Democrats have not picked up the ball,” CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten said Monday morning.
“It’s the Republicans who are running with the ball on the top issues.”
When compared to Ipsos polls from before the 2022 midterms, Enten noted, the GOP has actually improved its standing among Americans — gaining 10 percentage points of support on immigration and nine percentage points of support on crime since that election cycle.
On the economy, however, Republicans have lost five percentage points of support since 2022.
Democrats currently hold a 3.6 percentage point lead on the generic 2026 congressional ballot, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
“Whatever Democrats are doing, it ain’t working,” added Enten, pointing out that independents are still breaking for Republicans on those three issues.
Unaffiliated Americans in the Post/Ipsos survey support the GOP’s handling of crime by 21 percentage points and their handling of immigration by 10 percentage points. On the economy, independents more narrowly back Republicans — by one percentage point.
The poll was conducted Sept. 11-15 and interviewed 2,513 US adults in English and Spanish, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus two percentage points.
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