Hannah Hartig is a senior researcher at Pew Research Center, where she primarily studies U.S. political attitudes and voting behavior. She has authored analyses on topics including domestic opinions of the U.S., voter turnout in 2020 and views of abortion. Prior to joining the Center, she was director of research at the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She regularly discusses the Center’s political research with the news media and has served as an election night exit poll analyst for NBC News since 2014. Hartig received her bachelor’s in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and master’s degree in quantitative politics from the University of Pennsylvania.
68% of U.S. adults who voted in the 2020 presidential election turned out to vote in the 2022 midterms. Former President Donald Trump’s voters turned out at a higher rate in 2022 (71%) than did President Joe Biden’s voters (67%).
Growing shares of Americans view both gun violence and violent crime as very big national problems. 49% of U.S. adults say gun ownership increases safety by allowing law-abiding citizens to protect themselves; an identical share says it reduces safety by giving too many people access to firearms and increasing misuse.
Democrats hold the edge on many issues, but more Americans agree with Republicans on the economy, crime and immigration. Inflation remains the top concern for Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, with 77% saying it is a very big problem. For Democrats and Democratic leaners, gun violence is the top concern, with about 81% saying it is a very big problem.
Half of U.S. adults say they disapprove of selective colleges and universities taking prospective students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds into account when making admissions decisions. 33% approve of colleges considering race and ethnicity to increase diversity at the schools, while 16% are not sure.
In states where abortion is prohibited, the share of people who say access to abortion should be easier has increased since August 2019. A majority of residents in those states say it would be difficult to get an abortion in the area where they live today, up 21 points from four years ago.
Americans express highly negative views of President Joe Biden, congressional leadership in both parties and Congress more broadly. Views of the economy remain overwhelmingly negative, and there has been a sharp rise in the share who say the country cannot solve many of its important problems.
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.
