The issue of single-issue voting

Who to vote for is a complex decision. It is built from years of research, personal reflection and deciding which candidate fits into your ideals. Most of all, people focus on how the different candidates focus on the issues that are prevalent at the time. For example, key issues in the recent 2024 presidential election were the economy, the right to abortion, the Israel-Palestine conflict and immigration. While many people chose to focus on a variety of issues, the U.S. has seen a rise of single-issue voting, or casting your ballot solely based on a single-issue.
In a research study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 81% of those surveyed stated that they see the economy as the largest issue in the 2024 presidential election. This was included in a list of the top issues for the reason people are voting which included health care, Supreme Court appointments, foreign policy, violent crime, immigration, gun policy, abortion, racial and ethnic inequality, and climate change. These issues became the basis for single-issue voting in the recent election.
Single-issue voting is not a new issue. In the history of our nation, single-issue voting has played a role in many elections throughout the years. An example of this is the role of slavery in the 1860 election. Most Americans casted their ballots either for or against slavery through the presidential candidates at the time, Abraham Lincoln who was anti-slavery and John C. Breckenridge who was pro-slavery. This election ended in the victory of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of the South from the Union.
“Inflation and the ‘Cross of Gold’ speech are good examples from history; labor unions were an issue too in that election,” government teacher Zachary Hawkins said in which he referenced the election of 1896 in which the sole-issue many Americans were voting was because of the state of the economy at the time.
This saw the victory of big corporations and the rich elite with William McKinley winning the election against his opponent, William Jennings Bryan.
“Recently, a lot of people have been voting based on immigrant policies or abortion policies,” senior Gus Mastrimone said.
This shows a pivotal shift in United States politics with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade and abortion no longer being protected under federal law, many voters showed up to vote because of this issue. They vote to either protect this right or to ban it outright and it is an issue that voters on both sides are choosing to base their vote on.
“The economy is huge. I think a lot of people only vote when kind of thinking about the economy. I know a lot of people going into this past election have basically considered, ‘am I more well off than I was four years ago.’” librarian Aaron Sommers said.
The economy is constantly an issue that people decide to focus on when voting and when considering which candidate received their vote. This may have led to a Trump victory as many voters felt the economy was better under the Republicans than the Democrats.
“I see it definitely now because polarization is at its worst and will continue to get worse because I think a lot of the younger generation has been voting on things that are spread in the media, specifically abortion,” junior Molly Utterback said.
The rise in the accessibility of modern media, may it be through social media platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram or through online news sources such as Fox News or The New York Times, has also led to an increase in single-issue voting as people become more acclimated to one topic over others or whatever is trending online. This also leads to an increase in the amount of topics that people vote over, and more and more people have become exposed to issues that older newspapers did not cover.
The effects of single-issue voting were shown in the recent election with the Republican candidate, former president Donald Trump, beating the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harriss, in this historic election. Issues such as abortion and the economy appeased many right-leaning voters, possibly causing this result in the election.
Single-issue voting will continue to shape and play a role in American politics for years to come. As new issues arise, a new era of single-issue voters will arise to champion these problems. As a country, all we can do is sit back and watch the effects of single-issue voting play out.