The 6 Issues Voters Care About Most Heading Into the Midterms

By Alex Buscemi, Editorial Manager at Builders

As the November 3 midterms bear down and the attack ads ramp up, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. So it’s worth stepping back and asking what people actually care about. Not the pundits or the megadonors — the regular voters filling out ballots. 

A new report published by the Pew Research Center this month asked voters which issues are “very important” to their vote in the 2026 congressional elections. And the good news is that there’s plenty of overlap between Democrats and Republicans. 

Here are the six issues respondents say they are most concerned about.

1. The economy

All registered voters: 84% say this issue is "very important" to their midterm vote
Democrats: 88%
Republicans: 82%

The rare issue where both parties stand on nearly identical ground, because inflation reaches every household. Rent, groceries, gas, the squeezed paycheck. They split on the fix: Republicans emphasize tax cuts and deregulation while Democrats favor wage growth and economic assistance. But the shared starting point — that things cost too much — is thoroughly bipartisan.

2. The future of democracy

All registered voters: 73%
Democrats: 85%
Republicans: 69%

Both sides care intensely and rank it near the top, yet each often means something different and sees the other as the threat. Republicans focus on election integrity. Democrats on curbing authoritarianism. The fears differ sharply, but underneath sits a shared, anxious conviction that the American experiment is fragile and needs protecting.

3. Healthcare

All registered voters: 68%
Democrats: 82%
Republicans: 53%

It registers as a sharper priority for Democrats, but the dread is universal: surprise bills, rising premiums, what a serious illness could do to a family. The split is over the government’s role: Democrats generally want to expand public coverage so no one falls through the cracks, while Republicans typically favor market competition and consumer choice to drive costs down — two different bets on whether government or the free market is better at making care affordable.

4. Education

All Registered voters: 62%
Democrats: 74%
Republicans: 48%

A stronger motivator for Democrats, but nearly every parent shares the goal: kids getting a real shot through a good education. Republicans believe that parents, not administrators or government, should have the final say over what their kids are taught, and that families should be free to take public funding to whatever school best fits their child, whether public, private, charter, or at home. Democrats, meanwhile, generally believe that funding should go toward improving public schools, paying teachers more, and making sure under-resourced districts aren’t left behind.

5. Immigration

All registered voters: 59%
Democrats: 53%
Republicans: 72%

The one issue in the top six that Republicans rank distinctly higher than Democrats. Republicans tend to emphasize border security. Democrats emphasize expanding legal pathways to citizenship. Both care about the human costs of getting immigration wrong.

6. Foreign policy

All registered voters: 57%
Democrats: 64%
Republicans 56%

A meaningful concern for both parties at fairly close levels, elevated this year by conflict abroad. The shared instinct is wanting security without costly entanglements. Differences show up in approach, how much to intervene, and how much to spend — a tension that increasingly runs within each party as much as between them.

Step back from the rankings and something hopeful emerges. The issues at the very top—the economy, healthcare, the worry about the country’s future—aren’t niche grievances owned by one tribe. They’re the concerns of a whole country that’s anxious about money, health, and whether things are going to be okay. The economy is the number one issue for Republicans and Democrats. The gaps that exist are real and worth taking seriously, immigration being the clearest, but they’re gaps in emphasis far more often than gaps in whether people care at all.

That’s the thing the outrage machine works hard to hide: most of us are worried about the same handful of things. We disagree, sometimes sharply, about the solutions, and those disagreements are cause for discussion, not concern.  But the shared ground under the whole conversation is wider than the shouting suggests.

So as the ads get louder and the rhetoric gets uglier between now and November 3, keep this list in your back pocket. Your neighbor across the aisle is very likely losing sleep over the exact same things that you are.

Make sure you’re registered and make a plan to vote this November. The people worried about these issues alongside you are counting on it.

Need help making sense of the midterms? Click here to learn more. 

Alex Buscemi can be reached at abuscemi@buildersmovement.org(opens in new tab)

Art by Matthew Lewis