Preliminary exit poll data is starting to leak out, and while they won’t yet report on how specific races are breaking, the issue priorities they report can give us some pretty good clues. Here’s the Washington Post‘s election live blog this hour:
The economy is once again voters most important issue in 2014 according to preliminary national exit polling, but not by as wide a margin as in recent years. More than four in 10 pick economy as the top issue, down from roughly six in 10 who said so in 2012, 2010 and 2008. One-quarter said health care was the top issue in their vote, while about one in seven said foreign policy or illegal immigration was most important.
Translation: Very bad news for Democrats. All of those issues cut against Democrats. You might think the economy could cut either way, except for this:
Roughly seven in 10 midterm election voters rate the economy negatively, and an even larger share are worried about the economy’s direction in the next year. While negative ratings of the national economy have fallen from a high of 90 percent in 2010, voters have yet to take a falling unemployment rate as a sign of sturdy recovery.
Neither party especially distinguished themselves in this campaign on economic themes, but you can expect the bulk of these voters will break against the party in the White House. Meanwhile, where is the war on women? Can’t seem to find it yet.
Wanna hear more good news? Here:
Slightly fewer than half of voters nationally say President Obama was not a factor in their vote for the House, according to preliminary exit poll results. But for those who do say he is a factor, more say it’s to oppose him than to support him, similar to 2010. That pattern holds up in the key Senate states of Georgia, Iowa and North Carolina.
Love the way the Post writes the lede of this item in a semi-double-negative to disguise the fact that a majority say Obama was a factor in their votes, and that they’re not pleased.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.