A new YouGov survey explores which of the two major political parties does a better job handling key issues, according to Americans. Among other findings, the Democratic Party is seen as better at handling LGBTQ issues and abortion while the Republican Party is seen as better at handling immigration and the economy.
Issues that Americans think the Democratic Party does a better job handling than the Republican Party include LGBTQ issues (50% say the Democratic Party is better at this vs. 21% who say the Republican Party), abortion (46% vs. 30%), health care (44% vs. 27%), and the environment (43% vs. 24%).
Which issues does the Republican Party handle better? According to Americans, Republicans do a better job when it comes to immigration (44% vs. 32%), the economy (43% vs. 31%), inflation (42% vs. 28%), and crime (40% vs. 26%).
Equal percentages say the Democratic Party (31%) and the Republican Party (31%) do a better job on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Guns are another topic on which there is a close divide: 39% say the Republican Party does a better job and 36% say the Democratic Party does.
The latest poll's results are similar to the results of another recent YouGov poll, which explored which presidential candidate Americans thought would do a better job handling the issues if elected president. Many of the issues asked about are the same between the two polls, including LGBTQ issues, immigration, and inflation. More thought Kamala Harris (43%) would do a better job handling LGBTQ issues than Donald Trump (22%); 43% thought she would do a better job handling abortion while 31% thought Trump would. 45% thought Trump would do a better job handling immigration (30% said Harris would) and 43% thought he would be better at handling inflation (29% said Harris would).
Unsurprisingly, majorities of Democrats think the Democratic Party does a better job handling all 14 of the issues asked about. The same is largely true for Republicans, with one exception — only 46% think the Republican Party does a better job handling LGBTQ issues while 24% say the Democratic Party does a better job on this.
Among Democrats, the issues that the largest shares think the Democratic Party does a better job handling are health care (88%), abortion (86%), LGBTQ issues (84%), and the environment (84%).
The issues that the highest percentages of Republicans think the Republican Party does a better job handling are inflation (87%), the economy (87%), immigration (86%) and foreign policy (81%).
There have been slight increases in the number of Americans who think the Democratic Party does a better job handling two issues since the question was last asked in December 2023. At the time, 41% said the Democratic Party does a better job handling LGBTQ issues; that number has since risen to 50%. In 2023, 37% said the Democratic Party does a better job handling health care; now, 44% say this.
— Taylor Orth and Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Related:
- Americans say the Democratic Party is more the one of LGBTQ+ people; the Republican Party, of Christians
- How Americans describe the Democratic and Republican parties
- How do Democrats and Republicans feel about the two parties?
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: This YouGov poll was conducted online on August 14 - 17, 2024 among 1,134 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (Spencer Platt / Staff)
