Americans view the presidential front-runners of both political parties roughly evenly when it comes to their handling of the economy, a new poll shows.
According to CNBC’s All-America survey, “the economy and unemployment” is the top issue in the current election cycle for a quarter of U.S. voters, followed by foreign affairs and global terrorism (19 percent).
Among those concerned about the economy, an even 24 percent of respondents felt Republican front-runner Donald Trump and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have both outlined the best economic policies and a combined 42 percent felt both candidates’ policies would increase wages in the U.S.
“The poll tells us that the battlegrounds over which the election is going to be fought are largely economic but there’s no clear advantage for either front-runner going into the election,” Jay Campbell of Hart Research Associates, which helped conduct the poll, told CNBC.
Respondents who indicated they are happy or satisfied with their current financial situation (57 percent) also split evenly on their judgment of Clinton and Trump’s economic plans.
Meanwhile, voters who cited frustrations with the political system in Washington were more likely to favor Trump on the economy than Clinton (28 percent to 21 percent). The billionaire businessman also leads Clinton among voters who are dissatisfied with the current economic system (27 percent to 19 percent).
On most questions, the combined support for Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and John Kasich was less than half the support for Trump.
The survey of 802 American voters was conducted from March 21-23 and contains a margin of error plus or minus 3.5 percent.
