The results of a recent poll were published in cleveland.com today, with a question asked to 428 Ohio Democrats in this traditionally swing state of what issues they believed the Democratic candidates should focus on the most. They were given a list of issues and allowed to choose as many as they wanted. It generated the following issue list along with the percentage of Democrats who selected each issue as an area candidates should focus on:
- Health care – 34.5 percent.
- Drug abuse – 27.6 percent.
- Economy, jobs – 27.4 percent.
- Poverty – 24.7 percent.
- Climate change – 23.1 percent.
- Taxes, spending – 21.8 percent.
- Environment – 21.8 percent.
- Racism, race relations – 20.2 percent.
- Education – 19.5 percent.
- Criminal justice reform – 19 percent.
- National security – 18.9 percent.
- Immigration – 18 percent.
- Distribution of wealth – 17.6 percent.
- Infrastructure – 16.5 percent.
- Federal deficit – 15.3 percent.
- Foreign policy- 14.7 percent.
- Gender equity – 14.4 percent.
- Student loans – 14.3 percent.
- LGBTQ rights – 13.4 percent.
- Abortion – 11.7 percent.
- Other – 3.7 percent.
Note that the poll was conducted by political science students in connection with a polling institute, so the results might not be as reliable as a poll conducted beginning to end by professionals. Note also that there’s no reference to a focus only on likely voters.
The one data point that surprised me is that drug abuse (presumably referencing the opioid crisis) made it to the #2 position, higher than poverty and climate change. I’ve heard most of our candidates discuss the opioid crisis in one way or another, but in my perception it hasn’t been discussed by most of them in the context of being a top priority as compared to other key national priorities. This poll might indicate the desirability of adding more emphasis to the opioid crisis in their campaigns.