WASHINGTON (AP) – While inflation and immigration have emerged as dominant themes this year the presidential raceanother issue was prominent in the minds of voters for both major candidates: the stake for democracy.

Half of voters identified democracy as the most important motivating factor for their vote. This was higher than the share of voters who answered the same about inflation, the situation from US-Mexico border, abortion policy or free speech, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.

Especially the supporters Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and republican Donald Trumpthe president-elect, saw the problem from different perspectives.

About two-thirds of Harris voters said that the future of democracy was the most important factor for their votes. No other topic — high prices, abortion policy, free speech or the potential of the first woman to be elected president — was as big a factor for her supporters. Harris especially leaned in this message to the end of her campaign: She said Trump was a threat to undermine the country’s founding ideals and called him a fascist.

The sentiment was supported by former members of the first Trump administration to warn about his office fitness. Trump refused the peaceful transfer of power while lying about his loss in the 2020 election for Democrat Joe Biden. And on January 6, 2021, Trump too director a lot of his supporters to Capitol after telling them to “fight like hell”.

Audrey Wesley, 90, of Minneapolis cited Trump’s legal cases and his non-compliance with the law as one of the reasons he supported Harris.

“Our system is broken,” she said.

Wesley said one of the things that bothered her the most was Project 2025a detailed conservative plan for the next Republican administration. Trump said he didn’t read the reporteven though many members of his first administration helped create it.

“He’s very scary in terms of what he wants to do,” Wesley said.

The idea that democracy is under attack also motivated Trump voters, but in entirely different ways. About a third of his supporters said democracy was the most important factor in their vote.

A further breakdown of the poll found that 9 out of 10 Harris voters who indicated that democracy was the most important factor in their vote were somewhat or very concerned about what Trump’s election would do to the country. closer to authoritarianism. About 8 in 10 Trump voters thought Harris’ election would bring the country closer to authoritarianism. The “democracy voters” who supported Harris and Trump were equally concerned that the opposing candidate’s views were too extreme.

ascertainment followed a consistent pattern in recent AP VoteCast polls and Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. while the future of democracy was one of the few cross-cutting concerns among a fractured electorate, people understood why they were worried about it and who was responsible for the threat.

Debbie Dooley, 66, and co-founder of the Tea Party movement, had several major factors in her decision to vote, all leading to concern about what would happen to the country under another administration democrat.

“I think Thomas Jefferson said that when people fear their government, there is tyranny,” she said. “We had tyranny under the Biden-Harris machine.”

Dooley, a longtime Trump supporter, cited the nation’s “open border” and the concerns of many conservatives about crimes by migrants who have evaded the law. The Cumming, Ga., resident also agreed with Trump’s claim that the Biden administration has unleashed the Justice Department against political opponents.

“It’s something they do in Russia. It’s something they would do in China, not in the United States, not here in the beacon of freedom for the world,” Dooley said.

The Republicans held congressional hearings for nearly two years, but provided little substance to the claim that Biden “weaponized” the department.

Like many other conservatives, Dooley also felt that social media companies have silenced their voices, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Thank God for Elon Musk,” she said. “Twitter or X is a totally different place now than it was before I took over, so we have First Amendment rights. It’s freedom of speech.”

The poll found that nearly all “democracy voters” who supported Trump said free speech was at least a factor in their vote. It was a less prominent issue for Trump voters who said democracy was a minor or no factor in their choice.