Just as in Iowa, voters in New Hampshire consider immigration the most important issue in the 2024 presidential campaign. As reported here, 40 percent of caucusing Iowans found immigration to be most important. Fox News is now reporting that 41 percent of New Hampshire votes feel the same. Again as with Iowans, other issues in New Hampshire came further back: economy (31 percent), foreign policy (8 percent), and abortion (5 percent). (Similarly, in Iowa, immigration was followed by the economy [35 percent] and foreign policy and abortion, both at 11 percent.)
When asked if immigrants help or hurt the economy more, only 28 percent of New Hampshire voters said they help overall, while 60 percent say they are harmful. Those numbers are similar to the Iowa poll’s, which showed three-quarters of caucus goers believe the influx of immigrants does more harm.
These numbers represent a significant shift for immigration as a national issue. In 2020, for example, according to Pew Research, immigration placed ninth, behind eight other issues, headed by the economy. In 2016, it was sixth, and in 2012, it placed down at fifteenth. Twenty years ago, in 2004, immigration as an issue failed to register at all. The trend is inescapable. It is no longer the economy; the issue is immigration.
For more, see Fox News.