Research

Audience Understanding Survey: Most Important Issues

May 31, 2024

Galvanize Action conducted an audience understanding survey in May 2024. These findings provide a point-in-time snapshot of which issues were most important to white women in that moment in order to ascertain how they would impact their attitudes, opinions, and civic choices. This survey was analyzed with particular attention to our audience of ideologically-moderate white women.

KEY OPINION QUESTION #1
Which of these is the most important issue to you in deciding who to vote for in the 2024 election for president?

Economy
Abortion
Crime
Healthcare
Climate Change
Racial Inequality
Transgender Rights
Immigration
Preserving Democracy
Gun Violence
Foreign policy/Foreign aid/Focus overseas
Something else (please specify in comments)

Responses among moderate white women compared to the full sample of US white women

TOPLINE TAKEAWAYS

Economy was the most-commonly-chosen top issue across nearly all demographics. Abortion and immigration are also in the top three among the full sample.
- Among the full sample of white women, economy was the most-chosen top issue (34%). Abortion and immigration were tied for the second-most-frequently-selected issue (13%) among white women.
- Among ideologically-moderate white women, the most commonly selected issue was also the economy (42%), followed by healthcare (12%) and immigration (10%). All other issues received a less than 10% response rate from ideologically-moderate white women, including abortion (9%).
The economy was the top concern for Republicans and Independents, but more Democrats chose abortion as their top issue.
- For Republican white women, the issue with the highest response rate was economy (44%), followed by immigration (25%).
- Among Independent white women, economy was the most common response (38%), followed by healthcare (14%).
- For Democratic white women, the issue with the highest response rate was abortion (25%), followed by the economy (20%).
All three age groups selected the economy at the highest frequency.
- Ages 18-34: After economy (36%), the next two most-common responses were abortion (15%) and healthcare (15%).
- Ages 35-54: After economy (45%), the next two most-common responses were abortion (11%) and healthcare (10%).
- Ages 55+: After economy (27%), the next two most-common responses were immigration (20%) and abortion (13%).
All urbanicity groups showed similar rates of economic concern, with rural women choosing economy at a slightly higher rate (38%) than suburban women (32%).
Across household income groups, white women in all three income categories selected the economy at the highest rate.

KEY OPINION QUESTION #2
We also asked women about the importance of preserving democracy, which was one of the less-commonly-selected top issue choices, compared to a year ago.

How important of an issue is preserving democracy to you today compared to a year ago?

A lot more important
Somewhat more important
Somewhat less important
A lot less important

The majority of white women surveyed reported that preserving democracy was either a lot more important (47%) or somewhat more important (36%) to them at the time of the survey than it was a year ago.

	A lot more important	Somewhat more important	Somewhat less important	A lot less important
White women	47%	36%	10%	6%

Responses by Ideology

Ideologically-moderate white women reported agreement that preserving democracy has gained importance, but their agreement is less strong than liberal and conservative white women.

	A lot more important	Somewhat more important	Somewhat less important	A lot less important
Liberal	57.1%	33.1%	8.3%	1.5%
Moderate	42%	40.5%	10.1%	7.4%
Conservative	50.7%	35.8%	8.1%	5.3%