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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2016
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A member of a production crew walks out debate hall at Hofstra University in Hempstead,
N.Y., Sunday, the night before Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Re-
publican presidential candidate Donald Trump will meet in their first presidential debate.
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Poll inds most
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By LAURIE KELLMAN
and EMILY SWANSON
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Carol
Jones knows what she wants to
hear Hillary Clinton and Don-
ald Trump discuss during their
irst televised debate: educa-
tion and jobs. She’s far from
sure which candidate will earn
her vote on Election Day.
“All we see is the cat ight-
ing,” says the Shirley, Arkan-
sas, retired substitute teacher.
At Monday’s debate, the
70-year-old says, “they need
to talk about their programs ...
but I don’t think they will.”
A majority of Americans,
like Jones, say they’re frus-
trated, angry — or both — with
the 2016 presidential election,
according to a new poll by the
Associated Press-NORC Cen-
ter for Public Affairs Research.
Most Americans aren’t feel-
ing proud or hopeful about the
race, and half feel helpless,
the results ind. Majorities of
Americans want more focus
on issues that are important to
them, starting with health care,
Social Security, education, ter-
rorism and homeland security.
Apathy isn’t the problem,
the survey found. Eighty-six
percent of Americans are pay-
ing at least some attention to
the race.
Not popular
The campaign is certainly
hard to miss. Trump and Clin-
ton are the two least popular
presidential candidates in his-
tory, and their ferocious bat-
tle is smashing precedents and
dominating public discourse.
Trump has built his cam-
paign in large part on atten-
tion-getting —and frequently
untrue — accusations, such as
that his opponent “is the devil”
and President Barack Obama
“founded” the Islamic State
group. But he’s found success
linking the nation’s immigra-
tion woes to its national secu-
rity concerns, the latter of
which is rated by Americans
as among the top issues facing
the country.
Clinton is a former senator
and secretary of state who is
an avowed foreign and domes-
tic policy wonk. She has tried
to make the election, in part, a
referendum on Trump’s itness
for ofice. Her recent stum-
ble during an abrupt exit from
this year’s 9/11 memorial cer-
emony, captured on video,
added to the reality-show qual-
ity of the election. Her cam-
paign disclosed that she’d been
diagnosed with pneumonia.
Clinton and Trump have
clear political and stylistic
objectives during their irst
debate Monday, the irst of
three such showdowns certain
to inluence the race in its inal
six weeks. For both, it’s about
rattling the other candidate
— and not being baited into a
less-than-presidential perfor-
mance. Trump is looking to
shore up his credibility with
moderate white voters, partic-
ularly women, after more than
a year of remarks that appeared
intolerant or bigoted. Clinton
is trying to appeal to young
Americans, who are unenthu-
siastic about her candidacy.
Issues? Jones suggests the
Starting
at
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
AP Photo/ Evan Vucci
Democratic presidential can-
didate Hillary Clinton speaks
during a campaign stop in
Orlando, Fla., Sept. 21.
Republican presidential can-
didate Donald Trump speaks
during a campaign rally in
Miami on Sept. 16.
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AP Photo/J. David Ake
A stand-in for Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump is seen in a television camera monitor as prepara-
tions continue Sunday for the presidential debate at Hof-
stra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
ONLINE
AP-NORC Center: www.apnorc.org
candidates owe more on that
front it to potential voters who
don’t have access to the inter-
net or the time she has to hunt
down their policy positions.
“I went looking on the
internet for (Clinton’s) posi-
tion on free (college) educa-
tion, and it was hard, but I
inally found it,” says the life-
long Democrat, who isn’t sold
on Clinton because she doesn’t
trust her, or husband Bill, the
former president and governor
of Jones’ state. “They need to
talk about their programs on
this, this and that.”
Whether the candidates
ever get to informative discus-
sions of their policy positions
and their professional qual-
iications is unclear. But the
demand is there.
Issues that matter
The survey found that
nearly two-thirds of Ameri-
cans say the campaign focuses
too little on the issues that mat-
ter to them personally. More
than 6 in 10 Americans of both
parties agree. A bit more than
half say there’s been too little
focus on the candidates’ qual-
iications, with Democrats
being more likely than Repub-
licans to feel that way, 61 per-
cent to 45 percent. And more
than half of Americans in the
survey said the campaign is
focused too much on the per-
sonal characteristics of the
candidates, with Republicans
and Democrats about equally
likely to feel that way.
The issues Americans care
most about? Health care comes
in irst, with 81 percent list-
ing that as very or extremely
important, while similarly
high percentages said the same
about Social Security, educa-
tion, terrorism and homeland
security. The next most-cited
issues: crime and economic
growth, which three-quarters
of respondents listed as at least
very important. Similar major-
ities cited poverty and taxes.
Ranking lower, according to
the indings: immigration, with
just 61 percent listing the issue
as very or extremely important
to them.
There’s bipartisan agree-
ment on the importance of
some issues. Nearly identical
percentages of Democrats and
Republicans call crime and
unemployment top issues. At
least three-quarters from both
parties call Social Security
very important.
On many other issues, their
priorities diverge: Democrats
are particularly likely to call
health care and poverty top
issues, while Republicans are
particularly likely to rank ter-
rorism, taxes, debt and for-
eign policy as very important.
About 7 in 10 Democrats but
less than half of Republicans
named as top issues call gun
control and income inequal-
ity. Three-quarters of Demo-
crats, but only about a third
of Republicans, say the same
about racism, the environment
and climate change.
Republicans are far more
likely to name international
trade agreements as a very or
extremely important issue.
And 7 in 10 Republicans, but
only about half of Democrats,
call immigration a top prior-
ity. Among Americans with a
favorable opinion of Trump,
nearly 8 in 10 say so.
The AP-NORC poll of
1,022 adults was conducted
Sept. 15-18 using a sample
drawn from NORC’s probabil-
ity-based AmeriSpeak panel,
which is designed to be repre-
sentative of the U.S. popula-
tion. The margin of sampling
error for all respondents is
plus or minus 3.7 percentage
points.
Respondents were irst
selected randomly using
address-based sampling meth-
ods, and later interviewed
online or by phone.
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