Reuters/Ipsos Core Political Survey: Party Strength Matchups (07/31/2019)

Washington, D.C. - In the most recent edition of the Reuters/Ipsos Core Political, 31 percent of Americans and 33 percent of registered voters believe the United States is headed in the right direction. This number has remained steady for the last several weeks. Republican registered voters are much more likely to agree that the country is on the right path (66%) than the general population. Democratic registered voters are much less likely to perceive the direction of the country as positive – just 9 percent report the country is headed in the right direction. 

Four in ten Americans (39%) approve of the way President Trump is handling his job at president. The proportion of Americans who approve of Trump has remained stable over the last several months. Registered Republican voters continue to be pleased with the way Trump is handling his position – 83 percent report they approve, with 50 percent strongly approving. Democratic registered voters are much less likely to say they approve how Donald Trump is handling his job as president (just 7%).

Immigration (24%), healthcare (17%), and the economy (9%) are the top issues facing the country right now according to the general public. Immigration is seen as the most important issue for 4 in 10 Republican registered voters (43%), compared to just 1 in 10 Democratic registered voters (11%). Democratic registered voters are less aligned than Republican registered voters in their concerns – healthcare is the top priority for a quarter of Democratic registered voters (24%), while the environment (12%), the economy (11%), and immigration (11%) round out the other top issues for Democratic registered voters.

When it comes to specific policy issues, more Americans prefer the Democratic Party’s policies on domestic and social issues and the Republican Party on Israel and issues related to the economy. Americans are more likely to believe the Republican approach is better for the following issues:

• Jobs and employment (36% prefer Republicans, 30% prefer Democrats);
• The economy (37% prefer Republicans, 29% prefer Democrats); and
• Israel (32% prefer Republicans, 22% prefer Democrats);

While the Democratic Party is seen has having better policies than the Republican Party on these domestic issues by more Americans:

• Healthcare (40% prefer Democrats, 23% prefer Republicans);
• Education (38% prefer Democrats, 21% prefer Republicans);
• Women’s rights (45% prefer Democrats, 16% prefer Republicans); and
• The environment (44% prefer Democrats, 16% prefer Republicans).

Americans are split on which party has a better policy for these issues:

• Immigration (34% prefer Democrats, and 35% prefer Republicans); 
• The federal deficit (26% prefer Democrats, and 25% prefer Republicans);
• Foreign policy (31% prefer Democrats, and 33% prefer Republicans); and
• Taxes (32% prefer Democrats, and 31% prefer Republicans).

About this Study

These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted for Thomson Reuters between July 29-30, 2019. For the survey, a sample of 1,115 Americans, including 972 registered voters, 471 Democrat registered voters, 384 Republican registered voters, and 92 Independent registered voters ages 18+ were interviewed online. The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points for all adults, 3.6 percentage points for registered voters, 5.1 percentage points for Democratic registered voters, 5.7 percentage points for Republican registered voters, and 11.6 percentage points for Independent registered voters. For more information about credibility intervals, please see the appendix.

The data were weighted to the U.S. current population data by gender, age, education, and ethnicity. Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online polls. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. Figures marked by an asterisk (*) indicate a percentage value of greater than zero but less than one half of one per cent. Where figures do not sum to 100, this is due to the effects of rounding. To see more information on this and other Reuters/Ipsos polls, please visit http://polling.reuters.com/.

For more information on this news release please contact:

Clifford Young
President, U.S.
Ipsos Public Affairs
202.420.2016
[email protected]

Chris Jackson
Vice President, U.S.
Ipsos Public Affairs
202.420.2011
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos is a global independent market research company. Our team of 18,000 across 90 countries serves 5,000 clients and undertakes 70,000 different projects each year. Our polling practice is a non-partisan, objective, survey-based research practice made up of seasoned professionals. We conduct strategic research initiatives for a diverse number of American and international organizations, based not only on public opinion research, but elite stakeholder, corporate, and media opinion research.

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