The lead-up to the has shown that no matter who they’re voting for, voters share common ground — people are anxious about the economy and immigration, which some see as related issues.
An October Times/Siena poll found the economy ranks as the highest concern for voters, followed by abortion and immigration.
But abortion is far more important for voters in favour of US vice president and , and immigration is far more important for those who support the former president and , according to September polling from the Pew Research Center.
Here’s where the candidates stand on five key issues.
Economy
With concerns around the state of the economy and inflation, 81 per cent of registered voters said the economy will be very important in this year’s election, according to a Pew report from September.
Trump and his campaign contend Americans were better off economically while he was in the White House.
Trump has made tariffs and tax cuts the key elements of his economic pitch to voters. He has said he would cut federal spending, which Republicans blame for triggering consumer price spikes, and trim back federal regulations.
Harris has put forward proposals that would cut taxes for a large swath of voters and pledged new investments in childcare and healthcare.
Trump leads Harris on the US economy by only a point, a Financial Times (FT) poll found last week.
The poll found 44 per cent of registered voters said they trusted Trump more to handle the economy compared to 43 per cent for Harris, FT reported, adding it was the first time Trump has been ahead on this metric.
However, inflation continues to be a sticking point after peaking in 2022. While the inflation rate has since eased, voters remain concerned about high prices for food and housing.
Abortion
Democrats have made abortion rights central to their 2024 campaign, two years after the Supreme Court — powered by a conservative majority that Trump installed — overturned and ruled that abortion was not constitutionally protected.
Reuters polling shows most Americans do not favour strict limits on reproductive rights, and Democrats are hoping threats to those rights will encourage millions of women and independents to vote their way this year.
Harris has argued for federal legislation that would restore the constitutional right to abortion.
Of surveyed Harris voters, 73 per cent said Supreme Court appointments were “very important” to them, compared to 54 per cent of Trump supporters, according to the Pew research.
Trump has said the matter should be left to individual states and that he does not support a national ban on the procedure.
He supports exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother and has said he would not block access to abortion medication. He has also expressed support for in vitro fertilisation, or IVF, which some anti-abortion proponents want to ban.
Immigration
In 2023, the US recorded a record-high level of foreign-born residents at 47.8 million or 14.3 per cent of the population, according to the US Census Bureau, making it the biggest year-on-year increase since 2000.
During President Joe Biden’s time in office, the US border patrol says it has had about 8 million encounters with migrants attempting to enter the country illegally through the southern border. According to Pew analysis of government figures, December 2023 had the highest number of encounters on record.
This has been on the decline this year after Biden issued an executive order making it much harder to enter and stay in the US without legal permission to seek asylum, which helped result in a 77 per cent decline in encounters from December to this August, Pew analysis shows.
Trump has taken an aggressive stance against immigration, promising a mass deportation of all undocumented migrants if elected, a proposal criticised by both human rights organisations and economists.
During the , Trump falsely claimed: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
He has since relating to Haitian immigrants in the Ohio city. There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio — including Republicans — have repeatedly said the story is untrue.
Bruce Wolpe, a senior fellow at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre, said Trump has always been effective in harnessing fear around migrants.
“Immigration is as hot-button an issue as it is in Australia. And people are very concerned about uncontrolled immigration, not going through legal channels,” he said.
Wolpe said Trump often ties immigration concerns to the economy, but his rhetoric has time and again strayed into racist tropes.
“He’s saying that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country. He’s just said earlier this month that we have too many bad genes in the United States from immigrants.”
With the vast majority of voters saying they favour stronger border security measures, Harris has tried to demonstrate her ability to take control of the southern border but also stressed there should be an earned path to citizenship.
In the crucial battleground state of Arizona, which lies on the southern border, Harris has said: “Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from re-entering for five years.”
“We will pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat violators. And if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum,” she said in September.
Democracy
There’s the broader issue of democracy itself, a vote-winner for Harris, given her opponent still hasn’t accepted the results of the last presidential election.
Her campaign ads regularly feature footage from the , and she’s been endorsed by a number of high-profile Republicans who say it’s time to put country over party.
“Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. And the tragic truth, the tragic truth that we are facing in this election for president of the United States is that there is actually an honest question about whether one of the candidates will uphold the oath to the Constitution of the United States,” Harris states in one example.
On the other hand, Trump continues to galvanise his supporters by framing himself as the voice of those who feel disenfranchised, .
He is promising to root out corruption and reduce the influence of special interest groups and lobbyists in Washington if re-elected.
Gun control
The US has seen the worst sustained political violence since the 1970s, culminating in two assassination attempts on Trump and three shootings at a Democratic campaign office for Harris in Arizona.
But Americans hold gun policy dear, with 56 per cent of voters stating it was very important, according to the Pew research.
Harris says she favours the US constitution’s second amendment (the right to bear arms) and said in the 10 September presidential debate with Trump that she owns a gun.
Harris’ campaign website says if she is elected, she would “ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks, and support red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people”.
Trump has not spoken specifically about gun control much during this campaign, but he has been endorsed by and met with the powerful National Rifle Association.
In a statement, his campaign said he would “stand up for our constitutionally enshrined right to bear arms”.
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