A rapid approval of a coronavirus vaccine would do little to boost Trump’s political fortunes, the poll also indicates.
It’s the economy, again. But it’s also the coronavirus pandemic, the upheaval it’s brought to kids’ education and a nationwide reckoning on racial discrimination that’s top of mind for likely voters, according to a new POLITICO-Harvard poll gauging their attitudes heading into the presidential election.
While the economy is typically a top voter issue in presidential elections, it’s taken on new urgency with millions out of work because of the pandemic. The new poll shows that unlike some past elections, issues that are deeply personal to Americans’ everyday lives, rather than policy debates that can be more abstract, rank among the most important priorities that will influence voters.
“Issues which are broader and further away from people’s lives may not have the same impact as they would have at another time when you didn’t have an epidemic and a recession,” said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who designed the poll. Continue reading.