Andy Cerda

Americans now see reducing the budget deficit as a higher priority for the president and Congress to address than in recent years. But strengthening the economy continues to be the public’s top policy priority.

While 64% of Republicans say GOP congressional leaders should “stand up” to Biden on matters important to their party’s voters, Democrats are more likely to say they would support efforts by leaders to find common ground.

Most U.S. adults say President Joe Biden (65%) and Republican leaders in Congress (61%) will be unsuccessful getting their agendas enacted in the next two years; only about a third say the president and GOP leaders will be successful. Republicans are less confident than Democrats in midterm vote counts – but more confident than they were after the 2020 election.

The U.S. public’s views of banks and other financial institutions, as well as large corporations, have become much more negative recently.

Six-in-ten Republicans say they feel warmly toward Donald Trump, an October survey found. This is down modestly since last summer (67%).

There has been a sharp decline in the share of Republican voters who are “very confident” that votes cast at polling places will be counted accurately.

The economy is clearly the top issue for voters; fully 79% say it will be very important to their voting decisions – the highest share among 18 issues included on the survey. The public continues to take a dim view of current economic conditions. Just 17% of U.S. adults say the economy is in excellent or good shape, little changed from the 13% who said this in July.

Americans express less concern than in the spring about Ukraine being defeated by Russia and about the war expanding into other countries.

There are sizable ideological differences over the most pressing priorities for the U.S. immigration system within each partisan coalition.

Americans’ ratings of the Supreme Court are now as negative as – and more politically polarized than – at any point in more than three decades of polling. And nearly two-thirds of Democrats (64%) now say the Supreme Court has too much power, almost three times the share who said this in August 2020 (23%).