--- title: Voters Care Most About Economy, Healthcare and Terrorism description: New poll shows sharp partisan divide over what issues matter in the upcoming election canonical: https://time.com/3342016/what-voters-care-about-most-economy-healthcare-and-terrorism/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-12T19:59:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:09:54.031Z article:section: Politics og:title: Voters Care Most About Economy, Healthcare and Terrorism og:description: New poll shows sharp partisan divide over what issues matter in the upcoming election og:url: https://time.com/3342016/what-voters-care-about-most-economy-healthcare-and-terrorism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Voters Care Most About Economy, Healthcare and Terrorism twitter:description: New poll shows sharp partisan divide over what issues matter in the upcoming election twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # What Voters Care About Most: Economy, Healthcare and Terrorism  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Sep 12, 2014 7:59 PM UTC  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Sep 12, 2014 7:59 PM UTC Republicans and Democrats [disagree](New%20poll shows sharp partisan divide over what issues matter in the upcoming election) sharply over what issues matter most heading into the final stretch of the 2014 midterm elections, but among all issues the economy dominates as the preeminent concern. About 83% of Americans ranked the economy as their chief concern, followed by healthcare (77%) and terrorism (75%). That’s a drop in importance of the economy from 90% in 2010\. Healthcare and terrorism have essentially held steady since then. Republicans are more concerned about the economy and terrorism than Democrats. For Republicans, foreign policy, the budget deficit and immigration loom largest among issues to consider in the upcoming election, each being named “very important” by at least 70% of polled voters. In contrast, Democrats are more interested in the environment and economic inequality by a similarly wide margins. The poll also contains some good news for the GOP heading into the midterms: Republican voters are significantly more fired up and 12 percentage points more likely to say they will definitely vote than Democrats. The survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center between September 2 and 9 and polls 2,002 American adults, including 1,552 registered voters. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3342016/what-voters-care-about-most-economy-healthcare-and-terrorism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3342016/what-voters-care-about-most-economy-healthcare-and-terrorism/"},"headline":"What Voters Care About Most: Economy, Healthcare and Terrorism","datePublished":"2014-09-12T19:59:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:09:54.031Z","description":"A new poll from Pew Research sheds light on key issues in the upcoming midterm elections","url":"https://time.com/3342016/what-voters-care-about-most-economy-healthcare-and-terrorism/","keywords":["democrats","republicans","GOP","Polls","2014 Election","Midterm Elections","2014 midterm elections"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3342016/what-voters-care-about-most-economy-healthcare-and-terrorism/","name":"What Voters Care About Most: Economy, Healthcare and Terrorism"}}]}] ```