This year’s Midterm Elections came with surprises and defeats as officials try to understand how politicians got the projected outlook wrong.
While Republicans focused their energy on inflation, crime, and the bad policies of President Joe Biden, Democrats held the key to abortion that many felt strongly about.
According to an exit poll conducted by CNN, “soaring prices were at the top of mind for voters” as they cast their ballots.
More than 7 in 10 voters opted to vote for Republicans while nearly a third said inflation was a major issue when deciding on who to vote for, saying that they are “disappointed” in the way the country is going.
Inflation was a high concern of Americans in 11 key states, saying that the high price of items at the store is what influenced their choice when choosing which party to vote for.
However, despite voters’ frustration with Democrats’ cause of inflation, voters took abortion into a factor when voting as well- an issue that may have hurt Republicans greatly.
According to the poll, more than a quarter of voters said abortion was a top issue and 61 percent said that they were “unhappy” with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Voters, both female and male, felt that Republicans threatened the so-called “right” to an abortion, which gave Democrats about an 11-point advantage when it came to which party voters trusted more when it came to the matter.
Many Americans, however, felt divided on which party to vote for for the first time. On one hand, a tenth of voters trusted Democrats more when it came to abortion while trusting Republicans more when it came to inflation.
Additionally, the poll found that more than 70 percent of voters said that control of the Senate was very important to them. According to a FiveThirtyEight poll, 46.9 percent of voters want a Republican-controlled Congress, compared to 45.7 percent who want it Democrat-controlled.
A big topic of discussion was that former President Trump influenced which way Americans voted. However, the CNN poll found that neither Biden nor Trump had anything to do with which candidate they chose.