--- title: Time Poll: White, Black and Hispanic Voter Concerns Differ description: Black voters care about gun control twice as much as white voters do; white voters say terrorism is a greater concern. canonical: https://time.com/4529979/time-survey-monkey-poll-immigration-terrorism-gun-control/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-13T17:05:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:11:01.358Z article:section: Politics og:title: Black Voters View Gun Control as a Major Priority og:description: White voters say they are more concerned with terrorism og:url: https://time.com/4529979/time-survey-monkey-poll-immigration-terrorism-gun-control/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt348c0673365366eb/6988a964f887dc8e15e97bd9/gettyimages-613703202.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Black Voters View Gun Control as a Major Priority twitter:description: White voters say they are more concerned with terrorism twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt348c0673365366eb/6988a964f887dc8e15e97bd9/gettyimages-613703202.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Black Voters View Gun Control as a Major Priority by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 13, 2016 5:05 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. This is the second of three presidential debates scheduled prior to the November 8th election. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. This is the second of three presidential debates scheduled prior to the November 8th election.Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 13, 2016 5:05 PM UTC White voters are more concerned about terrorism, Hispanic voters are more concerned about immigration and black voters are more concerned about gun control, according to a TIME/SurveyMonkey poll. In an online tracking poll of 5,478 registered voters taken Sept. 28-29 after the [first presidential debate](http://time.com/4508703/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-hofstra-long-island/), 60 percent of white registered voters listed terrorism as one of their top three priorities for the next President, compared to only around 50 percent of registered voters who identified as black, Hispanic or another race. On immigration, 39 percent of Hispanic voters listed it as a top priority, compared to 30 percent of white voters, 22 percent of those who chose another race and just 12 percent of black voters. **Read More:** [_Women Are More Scared About the Election Than Men_](http://time.com/4516640/election-poll-scared-disappointed-trump-clinton/) There was also a significant gap in the importance of gun control: 40 percent of black voters listed it as a top priority, compared to 28 percent of Hispanic voters, 22 percent among those who chose another race and just 18 percent of white voters. Respondents were asked to choose among 11 topics, including the economy and jobs, terrorism and national security, health care, immigration, the budget deficit, gun control, Social Security, climate change, government regulation, energy policy and abortion or to name another topic of their own. Overall, 61 percent of respondents chose the economy and jobs, 58 percent chose terrorism and national security, 38 percent chose health care, 28 percent chose immigration, 22 percent chose the deficit, 21 percent chose gun control, 19 percent chose Social Security, 15 percent chose climate change, 12 percent chose regulations, seven percent chose energy, six percent chose another topic and three percent chose abortion. **Read More:** [_Voters Are Unhappy With the Country’s Direction_ ](http://time.com/4527207/election-polling-time-surveymonkey-clinton-trump-immigration-terrorism/) The SurveyMonkey Election Tracking survey was conducted online in cooperation with TIME magazine on [those two days](http://time.com/4515908/snl-debate-alec-baldwin-kate-mckinnon-donald-trump/). Respondents were chosen from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on SurveyMonkey each day. The poll has a bootstrap confidence interval—a measure of the pollsters’ confidence in the results—of plus or minus two percentage points for registered voters. You can read more about the methodology [here](http://time.com/4518560/time-survey-monkey-poll/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4529979/time-survey-monkey-poll-immigration-terrorism-gun-control/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4529979/time-survey-monkey-poll-immigration-terrorism-gun-control/"},"headline":"Black Voters View Gun Control as a Major Priority","datePublished":"2016-10-13T17:05:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:11:01.358Z","description":"White voters say they are more concerned with terrorism","url":"https://time.com/4529979/time-survey-monkey-poll-immigration-terrorism-gun-control/","keywords":["Polling","Health Care","Hillary Clinton","abortion","2016 Election topic","Economy","climate change","Gun Control","energy","Terrorism","Immigration","National Security","Social Security","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt348c0673365366eb/6988a964f887dc8e15e97bd9/gettyimages-613703202.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt348c0673365366eb/6988a964f887dc8e15e97bd9/gettyimages-613703202.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University","caption":"Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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":"/tag/polling/","name":"Polling"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4529979/time-survey-monkey-poll-immigration-terrorism-gun-control/","name":"Black Voters View Gun Control as a Major Priority"}}]}] ```