The state of democracy and the economy in the U.S. were the top issues on the minds of voters as they cast ballots in the presidential election, according to preliminary results from the NBC News Exit Poll.
Asked to choose among five issues, 34% of voters said democracy mattered most to their votes, while 31% said the economy. Abortion (14%) and immigration (11%) ranked as the next-most-important issues, while just 4% named foreign policy.
Men and women both said the state of democracy was their most important issue, followed by the economy. Two in 10 women said abortion was most important, compared with 8% of men. Immigration was ranked slightly higher among men (12%) than women (10%). Foreign policy lagged behind as a priority for both groups.
The exit poll results can shift throughout the night as more interviews are conducted and more votes are counted.
The issue priorities reflected deep concerns among the electorate. Roughly 3 in 4 voters said they think democracy in the U.S. today is threatened, while just a quarter said democracy is secure. Roughly 2 in 3 voters said the nation’s economy is either not good or poor, while just one-third of voters assessed economic conditions as excellent or good.
All told, the mood of the country is pessimistic: About three-quarters of voters nationwide feel negatively about the way things are going in the country, with 43% saying they're dissatisfied and 29% saying they're angry.
And nearly half (45%) of voters said they are financially worse off now than they were four years ago. That’s a rate of dissatisfaction higher than in any presidential election going back to 2008, when 42% of voters said they were worse off in the wake of that year’s financial crisis. Just 1 in 4 voters say they are better off now than they were four years ago.
The early exit poll results also show that voters who backed Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have different priorities on the issues.
A majority of Harris voters prioritized the state of democracy. Abortion was the second-most-important issue to Harris voters, 2 in 10 of whom said it mattered most to their votes, followed by economy, foreign policy and immigration.
Half of Trump voters said the economy was the most important issue to their votes, followed by immigration (20%), democracy (12%), abortion (6%) and foreign policy (4%).
Three in 10 voters nationally said the candidate quality that mattered most in deciding how they voted for president is the ability to lead. About a quarter said they prioritized someone who can bring needed change, followed by a candidate who has good judgment (21%) and someone who cares about people like them (19%).
The preliminary exit polls also found that just 41% of voters approved of President Joe Biden's job performance, while 59% disapproved. That’s markedly lower than Trump’s job rating (50%) when he lost his re-election bid in 2020, which underscores that Harris needs voters to view her differently from Biden.
Breaking the electorate down by race, Trump's favorability rating has fallen among white voters while ticking up among Black and Latino voters compared with four years ago. Forty-nine percent of white voters view Trump favorably, compared with 57% in 2020.
Meanwhile, Latino men are breaking for Trump by a 10-point margin, 54% to 44%, in a major reversal from four years ago. In 2020, Latino men backed Biden over Trump by a 23-point margin, 59% to 36%.
The Democrats have also lost ground among Latino women, though to a lesser extent. Harris has a 25-point advantage among Latino women, down from Biden’s 39-point advantage in 2020. One silver lining for Harris is that she is faring slightly better than Biden did among white voters.
