Called it crucial to their vote
Each voter rated five issues as crucial, a major factor, a minor factor or not a factor.
Their single top issue
"Which one of these is the most important issue facing the country?" The war was not its own choice; it falls under foreign policy.
Where Republican voters broke with Trump
Most Republican voters stuck with him, but a real slice did not, and prices reached them too.
About 1 in 5 Republican voters said attacking Iran was the wrong decision (22%). More said tariffs have hurt the economy (28%), and two-thirds said inflation caused their family hardship this year (66%). 18% disapprove of Trump.
How we got these numbers
Source: the 2026 network exit poll run by SSRS for CNN, AP, Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS. National House voters, 79,668 respondents, file stamped 2026-11-04. The exit poll may still be reweighted.
The exit poll publishes how many voters gave each answer and how each of those groups voted. We worked backward from those two numbers to the share of each party's House voters who gave each answer. That is our arithmetic, so any figure can be off by a point or two from rounding. "Democratic voters" means people who voted for the Democratic House candidate, including independents; the same goes for Republicans.
As a check, Fox News reported top issues by party ID: Democrats democracy 48%, economy 36%; Republicans economy 41%, immigration 27%, democracy 16%. Our figures by House vote land within two points of those.
More: Every Poll on the 2026 Midterm, about 50 polls and surveys ranked by accuracy, and rationalground.com.