WASHINGTON — As the first voting nears in the presidential race, most Americans have little to no confidence in the federal government to confront what they see as the country’s most important priorities, according to a national survey.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, conducted in December, found more than 6 in 10 respondents expressed only slight confidence — or none at all — that the federal government can make progress on the problems facing the nation in 2016.
Terrorism edged health care as the issue most often mentioned — each by about one-third of those questioned — when people were asked to volunteer the issues they believe Washington should address this election year.
The polling suggests an electorate more focused on the economy and domestic affairs than on foreign policy. Two-thirds of respondents included an economic issue on their priority list, and about 4 in 5 named a domestic policy other than the economy.
In addition to those who mentioned terrorism, nearly half added another foreign policy matter, and immigration was the next most frequent topic raised.
Perhaps most vexing for the dozen or so candidates vying to succeed President Barack Obama, the poll indicates widespread skepticism about the government’s ability to solve problems, with no significant difference in the outlook between Republicans and Democrats.
Along with terrorism and health care, respondents were most likely to cite immigration (29 percent), education (25 percent) and unemployment (24 percent) as priorities.
Democrats and Republicans were about equally likely to mention unemployment, though there was a racial disparity. Almost half of black respondents mentioned the issue, compared with only one-fifth of whites.
A predictable partisan divide was apparent in other issues.
Republicans were more likely than Democrats to cite terrorism as a priority, 42 percent to 30 percent. Immigration was mentioned by 43 percent of Republicans and 21 percent of Democrats.
The poll was taken after the Paris attacks that were attributed to the Islamic State group and a shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., blamed on Islamic State group sympathizers.
One-fifth of Republicans mentioned the federal budget deficit, compared with less than a one-tenth of Democrats, with a similar divide on the importance of taxes. Democrats were more likely to consider guns as priority, along with education, crime, racial problems, the environment and climate change.
The AP-NORC Poll of 1,042 adults was conducted Dec. 10-13, 2015. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
