DENVER (KDVR) — Coloradans increasingly feel the economy is the most important issue in the upcoming midterm elections, according to the results of the FOX31 / Channel 2 / Emerson College Polling / The Hill poll conducted Oct. 26-29.
The poll confirms a national trend in which voters are more concerned with economic issues like inflation and jobs than they are with political violence, abortion access, crime, health care or any other major issue.
Separate polling data says American voters tend to trust Republicans to handle economic issues more than they trust Democrats. As inflation has failed to cool significantly in the last month, Colorado’s independent voters have been growing warmer toward Republican candidates.
According to the poll, 38.6% of surveyed Colorado voters of all political affiliations listed the economy as their most important issue.
Twice the share of Coloradans lists the economy as the top concern compared to those who list threats to democracy. About 18% of the state said this was their top voting issue, the second-largest.
Abortion access ranked third. About 13% of Colorado voters listed this as their top voting issue. This is down significantly from September, when 22.1% of Coloradans said it was their top concern.
The economy has grown as the top concern among both Republicans and independent voters, while Democrats have grown more concerned with health care.
During September polling, COVID-19 was one of the possible responses for top voting issues and had 0.8% of responses. In the recent polling, it was replaced with threats to democracy.
For Democrat voters, threats to democracy are the number one concern, outranking abortion access. About 31% said this is their top concern.
A majority of Republicans now list the economy as their top issue, with 58.8% doing so. This is a 10-point increase from a month ago.
The economy has also grown in importance among independent voters. About 42% list it as their top issue, up from 38% in September.
✅ More from this poll / full results
Methodology: The FOX31 / Channel 2 / Emerson College Polling / The Hill Colorado poll was conducted October 26-29, 2022. The sample consisted of very likely voters, n=1,000, with a Credibility Interval (CI), similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE) of +/- 3.02 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, age, education, region, and race/ethnicity based on 2022 turnout modeling. It is important to remember that subsets based on gender, age, education, and race/ethnicity carry with them higher margins of error, as the sample size is reduced. Data was collected using cell phones via SMS-to-web, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines, and an online panel.
