Voters in battleground states say the economy is a top issue

Voters' impressions of how good each presidential candidate is for the economy could determine the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election.

In Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are engaged in close contests, most voters said the economy will be a major factor in deciding whom they will cast their ballot for, results from a CBS News and YouGov poll show. 

In Michigan, 80% of voters say the economy is a top issue for them, followed by 77% of voters who say inflation is. Seventy-two percent of voters ranked the state of democracy as one of the issues that matter most to them. Biden currently has a narrow lead over Trump in the state. 

In both Pennsylvania and Washington, 80% of voters similarly ranked the economy as one of the topics they care most about this election.

Other lower-ranked topics included candidates' stances on gun policy, crime, the U.S.-Mexico border and abortion. 

"It's so evident that the economy remains a central issue, but how people interpret the economy, the issues they want addressed to deal with their own economic situation — that's a complicated questions with complicated answers," said CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa.

About 6 in 10 people polled by CBS News said they rated the economy as "fairly bad" or "very bad," despite economic measures such as low unemployment, growing wages and a resilient stock market, which point to a strong U.S. economy. 

That could pose a challenge for Democrats who Costa said are eager to get "that labor voter, the union member" to vote Democratic and pull ahead of Trump.

"They know that those working voters, at times hear the call of the Trump campaign and his message on immigration. And it can be appealing to those voters, and so that's why Democrats are really trying to focus on the economy by focusing on labor," Costa said. 

Megan Cerullo

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.