The Washington Examiner tracks the key issues voters care about as they prepare to cast their ballots for the future president of the United States. The specific issues pursued are social security, crime, abortion, the economy and immigration.

The problems were chosen with help Associated Press Issue Tracker. The Washington Examiner then compared five of the key issues from Google Trends nationally, revealing which issues are most important to voters across the country. Early voting, which was not considered at the start of this draft because of its failure to rank, has been at the forefront of voters’ minds in recent days.

Here, you can track the importance of these various concerns to voters over a 30-day period. To read how these issues stack up state by state, scroll to the bottom of the story.

social security

social security was the top concern of the five search terms for voters across the country. The program was signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt in August 1935 with objective that it would “give some measure of protection to the average citizen and his family against job loss and old age poverty”.

Today, not even 100 years later, the program is in jeopardy. While Social Security won’t disappear entirely in the future, its funds could be depleted within a decade. Social Security Administration Board 2024 report showed that old age and survivors insurance and disability insurance funds would be the first to be affected if no action is taken. Social Security could pay 83% of scheduled benefits through 2035, which would eventually shrink to 73 percent.

Current program funds are drawn from payroll taxes, interest on trust fund bonds, and income taxes paid to higher-income beneficiaries. Possible actions to add more money to the program are raising the retirement age to 70, reducing the annual cost of living, raising wages to Social Security taxes, and raising the payroll tax rate.

Many people are not happy with the idea lift retirement age because it would disproportionately harm lower-income seniors. If the retirement age were raised to 70, average lifetime benefits would be reduced by 20% conformable Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Conversely, if Social Security were allowed to dry up, the depletion would result in a 23 percent reduction in benefits.

On the payroll tax rate hike, Rep. John Larson (D-CT) proposed Law 2100 of social security which would raise the federal tax rate for employers by 6.2 percent and raise taxes only on employees earning over $400,000. The bill would also eliminate the elimination of exemptions and government pension offset provision that Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) worked to eliminate. The bill stalled in Congress but was widely supported by Democratic representatives and senators from Colorado, California, New Jersey, New HampshireNew york, MichiganOhio, Illinois and Connecticut.

Crime

The reduction crime it was the second-ranked problem out of five in America as concern has grown since the pandemic. About 68 percent of Republicans say reducing crime is a top priority and about half of Democrats agree.

Crime has fallen over the past three decades conformable to data from the FBI and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The rate of violent crime fell by 49% from 1993 to 2022, with the largest decreases coming from robbery (-74%), aggravated assault (-39%) and murder (-34%). However, crime rates grew up during the pandemic and he fell back in 2023. Cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles all had lower violent crime rates in 2023 than in 2022.

Many voters are more probable to say that crime is rising nationally rather than locally, but the national violent crime rate fell to 363.8 per 100,000 people in 2023 compared to 385.2 per 100,000 people in 2020. From 2022, crime rates decreased by 12%, rape fell by over 9%, and aggravated assault fell by 3%.

Conformable per the PEW Research Center, six in 10 voters favor stricter gun laws, and 61 percent of voters think it’s too easy to get a gun legally. In 2021, more people he died from gun injuries than in any other year on record. Suicides accounted for 55% of the total, and homicides accounted for the remainder, although gun homicides accounted for 60% of juvenile deaths, making the main cause of death for those under 18. In 2024, US Surgeon General declared armed violence a public health crisis. To put the change in perspective, there were three active shooter incidents in 2000 COMPARATIVE to 61 incidents in 2021.

Economy

The economy it is a huge determining factor in presidential elections. Everything from the cost of food, the cost of living, the unemployment rate, the housing market, inflation and more have been used as talking points by both presidential candidates.

The pandemic has greatly affected many of these issues, especially the unemployment rate. Unemployment rates before the pandemic in 2018 and 2019 they were 3.9% and 3.7% before skyrocketing to 8.1% in 2020. In 2021, it dropped to 5.3% and 2022 saw 3.6%. The average unemployment rate in 2023 was 3.6%, but it increased in 2024. There were increases in the summer, but most recently victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton pushed the unemployment rate up to 4.1%.

The labor market has been fired this year with fish 254,000 jobs being added only in September. Inflation rates have escaped also. In June 2022, inflation rates were the highest on record at 8.9%, but in September 2024, inflation rates were 2.4%. Compared to tariffs 2023daily necessities such as petrol fell 15.3%, energy fell 6.9% and food rose 1.3%. In response to the sudden drop in inflation, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.5 points in September – the first cut in four years – to encourage more economic growth and stabilize the labor market.

The country’s total real gross domestic product grew up 3% in Q2 2024, with the best performing industries being manufacturing of non-durable goods and finance and insurance. Health care and social care, as well as the real estate industry, followed closely behind in the pace of growth. Construction and wholesale trade also rose, but educational services fell.

The real estate industry’s housing market isn’t exactly a buyer’s market, as median home prices hit a record high in July, but mortgage rates are falling down and the Fed rate cut is encouraging for potential homebuyers. The lower interest rate and Q2 growth in the construction industry is a positive sign for homebuilders as well. However, the market has frozen in place as potential home buyers continue to wait to see if rates drop further.

Abortion

Abortion worries came in fourth. The abortion conversation has become a 50-state discussion for the first time since 1973 after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. As of this year, 63 percent of voters believe abortion should be link85% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans share this position.

Some states have moved to protect the procedure immediately after reversal, while others have done the exact opposite. Here’s a breakdown of where each state ends up with abortion, conformable at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

States where abortion is legal until the point of viability or beyond are Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, PennsylvaniaRhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

virginNew Hampshire and New Mexico allow abortion but have no specific laws protecting the procedure. of Wisconsin The government is also debating the legality of abortion in the state.

States with abortion measures on the ballot include ArizonaColorado, Florida, MarylandMissouri, Montana, Nebraska, NevadaNew York and South Dakota. Ballot measures range from expanding existing protections to legalizing the procedure if it is outright illegal.

States where abortion is illegal except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.

States where abortion is legal up to the sixth week of pregnancy are Florida, GeorgiaIowa, North Dakota and South Carolina. North Carolina and Nebraska each impose restrictions after 12 weeks, Arizona allows abortions up to the 15th week, and Utah’s law is 18 weeks. The only exceptions to these time limits are cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

Immigration

Immigration came last to American voters in a nation that hosts a fifth of the world’s international immigrants, the equivalent of 51.6 million in 2024. Immigrants make up 15.6% of the nation’s population.

Conformable for the PEW Research Center, Mexico is the country of origin for 23 percent of all immigrants, and India, China, and the Philippines also contribute heavily to today’s immigrant population. By region, Asia accounts for 28% of immigrants and Latin America (excluding Mexico) is 27%.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended 1,000 people a day for alleged immigration violations, adding to the pressure on southern border agents. The Department of Homeland Security has implemented Southwest Border Security and Preparedness Plan to reduce stress on the southern border due to the influx of immigrants passing through from Latin American countries. The plan will also impose tougher penalties for illegal entry.

In 2022, 63 percent of the nation’s immigrants lived in just 20 major metropolitan areas, the largest being New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. However, the border states saw a DOWN in unauthorized border crossing from 2023, reducing the number of immigrants in border towns.

Conformable at US Customs and Border Protection, there were 249,741 border encounters in December 2023, the most ever in a single month, but in August 2024 there were only 58,038, demonstrating a 77% drop in crossings of the border. Both Mexico and the US have implemented policy changes to bring about this change; Mexico made it more difficult for migrants to reach the US border, and President Joe Biden signed a executive order in June, making it harder for illegal immigrants to apply for asylum and stay in the country.

As of 2022, 77% of all immigrants were here legally, 49% of them naturalized, 24% lawful permanent residents, and 4% temporary lawful residents. The remaining 23% of the immigrant population are unauthorized immigrants. Of these, approximately three million of them had temporary legal protections such as Temporary Protected Status, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, asylum, and special visas granted to victims of criminal activity.