What motivated American voters to go to the polls? Donald Trump and Kamala Harris voters expressed different concerns when voting this Tuesday, presidential election day in the United States, reflecting the glaring divisions between the two camps, according to studies carried out by several American media.
According to an Associated Press study of 110,000 voters nationwide, Democratic voters are primarily motivated by the fate of democracy in the country. A result confirmed by another NBC News study, which shows that a majority of Kamala Harris voters consider this issue a priority. In the final days of the campaign, the Democratic candidate and vice-president notably described her rival, Donald Trump, as “fascist”, “increasingly unbalanced” according to her and in search of “absolute power”.
VideoDonald Trump accused of praising Hitler, Kamala Harris calls him a “fascist”
About three in ten Democratic voters also said they were concerned about the state of the U.S. economy, two in ten about the issue of abortion, and one in ten cited health insurance or climate change, according to this study.
Few of them (one in ten) said they had chosen Kamala Harris to carry a woman to the presidency of the United States, which would be a first in the history of the country. This consideration was, however, a priority among black women, around a third of whom mentioned it, according to the AP study.
Half of Donald Trump voters surveyed said they were primarily concerned about the economy, according to the NBC News study. The former president regularly accused Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during the campaign of having “destroyed” the American economy, which he promised to put back on its feet. Inflation peaked in the United States at 9.1% in June 2022, but has seen a significant decline since then, falling to 2.1% last August.
One of the main axes of Donald Trump's campaign, immigration, was cited as the main motivation by 20% of his voters, according to the same study.
These two issues – the economy and immigration – also stood out in the study conducted by the Associated Press: about 50% of Republican voters surveyed said that inflation was the main reason for their vote, and about as many said discussed the situation on the border between the United States and Mexico. Note that one in four Donald Trump voters cited the assassination attempts against their candidate as the most important factor in their vote, according to this study.
