CBS News Battleground Tracker poll: Dems want candidates to talk about beating Trump, not impeachment
Impeachment may be the talk in Washington, but by more than 2 to 1, Democrats in states expected to hold early nominating contests want their party's candidates to talk about defeating President Trump in 2020 (69%) — not trying to impeaching him now (31%).
A majority of each candidate's backers hold this view, according to the latest CBS News Battleground Tracker poll. Most Democrats across the ideological spectrum want the focus to be on beating Mr. Trump rather than on impeachment, although those who identify as very liberal are a bit more likely to want to hear the candidates talk about impeachment.
Health care is top issue
What Democrats want to hear the candidates talk about is health care — the issue that helped Democrats win the House of Representatives in 2018.
Forty-one percent most want the Democratic candidates to discuss health care, ahead of jobs and the economy and gun policy, which rank second and third, respectively.
More specifically, 77% of Democrats in these states say they must hear a candidate's proposal on lowering health care costs in order to vote for them. More than six in 10 voters say they must hear a candidate's plans for reducing global warming, protecting abortion rights and enacting more gun control.
Fifty-two percent of Democrats say they must hear a candidate's proposal for addressing gender and race issues, a number that rises to 62% among African American Democrats.
This CBS News survey was conducted by YouGov between May 31 and June 12, 2019. A representative sample of 16,624 registered voters in 18 states expected to hold early primaries and caucuses (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia) was selected. This sample includes 7,885 self-identified Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 presidential vote. The margin of error is approximately 1.5%.