Iran War Tops Immigration, Crime as Voter Worry: Polls — SkimNews
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- Fox News and AP-NORC polls found the Iran war now ranks among voters' top four midterm issues, trailing only the economy, government corruption, and health care — surpassing immigration and crime, issues on which Trump performed well in 2024.
- Fox News survey showed 75% of respondents were "extremely" (42%) or "very" (33%) concerned about the war in Iran, while the AP-NORC poll found 62% of registered voters named the war one of their most important issues.
- Six in 10 voters oppose U.S. military action against Iran, and those voters favor Democratic congressional candidates by 56 points, according to the Fox News poll.
- Trump's foreign policy approval dropped to 33% in the AP-NORC poll — the lowest across eight polls during his second term — and 35% in the Fox survey, the lowest Fox has recorded since his return to office.
- Republican candidates in tight Michigan, Maine, and Iowa races have begun calling for a swift end to the war; Texas AG Ken Paxton admitted in leaked audio that the war and gas prices were his campaign's primary problems.
- The Strait of Hormuz energy crisis has driven gas prices and cost-of-living concerns, blurring the line between economic and foreign-policy worries for voters.
- Analysts have compared the 2026 midterms to 2006, when an unpopular Middle East war plus economic frustration fueled a Democratic wave of six Senate seats and 31 House seats — with Jim Antle writing in the Washington Examiner that "the public has even less patience for the current war than in 2006."
Why it matters: With six in 10 voters opposing the war and backing Democrats by 56 points among that group, Republican incumbents in swing districts now face a direct electoral cost — leaked audio from Senate candidate Ken Paxton blaming the war and gas prices confirms GOP operatives see this as an existential midterm threat with three weeks until Election Day.
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