The most recent in a series of YouGov polls about which presidential candidate would better handle many issues finds Americans think Kamala Harris would do a far better job handling LGBTQ issues and abortion while Trump would do a much better job handling immigration and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In polling conducted over the last few months, this has consistently been the case.
Harris' best issues in the most recent polling are LGBTQ issues, abortion, and the environment. 52% of Americans think Harris would do a better job than Trump handling LGBTQ issues if elected as president; 23% say Trump would be better at this. 49% think Harris would do a better job handling abortion, while 31% think Trump would. 45% think Harris would handle the environment better than Trump; 30% say he would handle it better than Harris.
The issues Americans are especially likely to say Trump would handle better than Harris are immigration (49% think Trump would handle this better and 35% think Harris would), the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (42% vs. 31%), and the Ukraine-Russia conflict (46% vs. 36%).
Americans have been consistent in their assessments of which candidate would better handle each issue. In a series of polls dating back to July 24, 2024, between 47% and 49% have said Harris would better handle abortion as president; between 27% and 33% have said Trump would be better at handling this. During the same time period, between 46% and 49% have said Trump would handle immigration better; between 34% and 35% have said Harris would handle this better.
More Americans say Harris would be better at handling LGBTQ issues now (52%) than did in an October 7 poll (47%). 23% in both polls said Trump would be better at handling this.
At this stage four years ago, Joe Biden was in a stronger position relative to Trump on many issues than Harris is now. In October 2020, 53% of Americans thought Biden would do a better job handling the environment and 32% said Trump would be better at this. 50% thought Biden would be better at handling health care while 38% thought Trump would be better. Roughly equal shares of Americans said each candidate would be better at handling the economy (44% said Biden and 45% said Trump) and at handling crime (43% vs. 43%).
— Taylor Orth and Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Related:
- Harris vs. Trump on the issues: Whose policies do voters prefer?
- Immigration: What 2024 voters want and which candidate they trust
- Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be scared about the state of the world
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: This YouGov poll was conducted online on October 24 - 28, 2024 among 1,139 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
