Reuters/Ipsos Core Political Survey: Party Strength Matchups (08/28/2019)

Washington, D.C. - In the most recent edition of the Reuters/Ipsos Core Political Survey, we examine which party Americans believe has a better approach to specific policy issues. More Americans prefer the Republican Party’s policies concerning the Middle East and jobs. On the other hand,  Americans prefer the Democratic Party’s approach to domestic and civil liberties issues. Americans are more likely to believe the Republican approach is better for the following issues:

• Jobs and employment (36% prefer Republicans, 32% prefer Democrats);
• Iran (30% prefer Republicans, 23% prefer Democrats); and
• Israel (31% prefer Republicans, 21% prefer Democrats).

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

• The environment (44% prefer Democrats, 17% prefer Republicans);
• Gay marriage (41% prefer Democrats, 14% prefer Republicans);
• Women’s rights (44% prefer Democrats, 20% prefer Republicans); and
• Healthcare (41% prefer Democrats, 24% prefer Republicans).

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

• The economy (31% prefer Democrats, and 34% prefer Republicans); 
• Taxes (30% prefer Democrats, and 32% prefer Republicans);
• Immigration (35% prefer Democrats, and 33% prefer Republicans); and
• Foreign policy (33% prefer Democrats, and 31% prefer Republicans).

When asked about the direction of the country, 29 percent of Americans and 32 percent of registered voters say the United States is headed in the right direction. Democratic registered voters are significantly less positive than Americans as a whole – just 10 percent say the country is headed in the right direction. However, Republican registered voters are much more likely to agree that the country is on the right path (63%) than the general population. 

President Trump’s approval rating stands at 39 percent this week among all Americans. Trump’s approval rating has remained stable for much of 2019, with four in ten Americans consistently reporting they approve of the job he is doing as president. Republican registered voters continue to be the driver of Trump’s positive approval ratings, with 83 percent approving, and of those, 51 percent strongly approve. Democratic registered voters are dissatisfied with the way Trump is handling his position as president, just 9 percent approve, while 73 percent strongly disapprove.

Americans remain split on the most important issues facing the country – immigration (18%), healthcare (17%), the economy (13%), and the environment (10%) are the top concerns for the majority of Americans. Saliency of issues is directly related to partisanship – immigration is more likely to be a top concern for Republican registered voters (30%) than Democratic registered voters (9%), while healthcare is more likely to be a top concern of Democratic registered voters (22%) than Republican registered voters (16%). The same is true for the environment – Democratic registered voters are much more likely to see the environment as a top concern (17%) than Republican registered voters (2%). When it comes to the economy, Democratic and Republican registered voters are tied in their concern (13%).

About this Study

These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted for Thomson Reuters between August 26-27, 2019. For the survey, a sample of 1,115 Americans, including 961 registered voters, 456 Democrat registered voters, 361 Republican registered voters, and 107 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, 5.2 percentage points for Democratic registered voters, 5.9 percentage points for Republican registered voters, and 10.8 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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