NewsWhip Research Center
Five key election issues
From the economy to health care: These are the topics shaping public interest in the American elections
We will be diving into what we’ve identified through our research as five key issues that are gaining the most traction online and might influence the public’s vote — the economy, immigration, abortion, health care, and foreign policy.
In this report, we’ll look at:
- Levels of media coverage for each topic in 2024, and how the public has engaged with that reporting
- The top articles since the beginning of September, to show what’s impactful on each topic in the weeks running up to the election
- Influential subtopics and social posts that are getting high engagement, from workers’ strikes to the candidates’ policies
articles written about the economy in 2024
engagements with articles about abortion this year
Key election topics
The Economy
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The economy remains the top concern for the American people in this election, with inflation, interest rates, and a recent dock worker strike dominating media and public interest.
engagements with articles about the economy
Public’s interest in the economy rises while the media’s falls
The economy has consistently polled as the biggest concern for Americans as we head into the November elections, after a presidential term categorized by high inflation. This has been reflected in the public interest continuing to rise as the election approaches, despite the media writing less about it since the beginning of May.
The biggest spike in interest came after the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the first time since 2020, which led to 1.4 million engagements that week. In total there have been more than 25 million engagements with economic articles, and more than a million articles written.
Top articles focus on policies, union action
The top articles about the economy focused on a suspended strike by port workers, the potential impact of “Trumpnomics” in terms of inflation, and Scientific American’s endorsement of VP Harris for the presidency.
The New York Times was comfortably the top publisher writing about the economy with more than a million engagements with its articles. Although Business Insider’s stories did not appear in the top ten, it was also an influential publisher writing about this topic, hitting 900k interactions.
Federal Reserve comes in for criticism
The Federal Reserve has consistently been found itself in the headlines during Joe Biden’s presidency, and is also looming large over the election. The interest rates and attempted soft landing from inflation have been the source of much political debate over the state of the economy, and the Fed continues to be a big part of that.
The decision to cut rates within two months of the election has led to criticism from some Republicans that has resonated with their audience. One example of this included Vivek Ramaswamy questioning the body’s independence in a highly engaged post on X shortly after rates were cut by half a point.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates massively, just 48 days ahead of the election. Thank god for the independence of the Fed! 😅 Funny how some of us last year predicted exactly this would happen.
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) September 18, 2024
The Federal Reserve Chairman admitted the massive influx of illegal immigrants under Biden and Harris has raised the unemployment rate. This administration’s refusal to secure the border is actively harming American workers and our economy. pic.twitter.com/3rryXkKTAs
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) September 18, 2024
Longshoremen strike threatens to shake up presidential race
The longshoremen port strike had political observers very interested on both sides of the aisle. It had the potential to shut down ports for days or weeks, dramatically affecting the supply chain and as a result the broader economy, just about a month before the election.
This sparked enough concern that some videos covering it, like the below from a local ABC News station, had more than a million engagements. Meanwhile the NYT’s reporting that the strike had been postponed until January was the biggest economic story since the beginning of the year with 157k interactions, even beyond the six weeks we looked at above.
@6abcactionnewsLongshore workers at ports from Maine to Texas are set to walk off the job early Tuesday, staging what could become the most disruptive strike to the US economy in decades. ♬ original sound - 6abc Action News
Immigration
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Immigration tends to capture a greater share of public interest as elections approach and political rhetoric about it begins to ramp up.
Low public interest in immigration until election time
Immigration is always an election issue, and the timeline below demonstrates that pattern. It largely aligns with times when Trump receives a lot of policy coverage, from his rejection of the border bill in February to the beginning of his campaign in earnest after the RNC in July.
Though the pattern was also reflected somewhat in media interest, it was nowhere near so dramatic in scale. The highest weekly media interest was around 9x that of the lowest week, while for public interest that number was 18x.
Top Articles focus on fact checking
The top articles about immigration ranged from fact-checks on Trump and Vance’s statistics around migrants during their respective debates, to criticism of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the border.
The most engaged article overall, though, came from the New York Times, who reported on Trump repeating a false story about immigrants in Aurora, Colorado during his debate with Harris. The story garnered more than 171k engagements, nearly double the amount of the next biggest article.
In fact, this was one of the most engaged political articles overall in any topic.
Trump’s pushes ‘invasion’ narrative
Trump has already made his stance on immigration abundantly clear at his rallies and during the debate, but his social media presence drives home his point, frequently referring to the country being ‘invaded’.
His posts about immigration on Facebook, X, and Instagram consistently see hundreds of thousands of engagements, and are often his most engaged social posts about his policies.
Engagements with Trump's posts on immigration on X
As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala’s…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2024
The Border bill was a major conservative media focus
One of the big topics of the beginning of the year was the bipartisan border bill which failed to pass after Trump intervened. In fact, its failure to pass coincided with the highest weekly level of public interest all year.
What’s interesting about this is how much the coverage at the time was dominated by conservative outlets reporting negatively about the bill. The Hill topped engagement, but Breitbart was not far behind, with some 95k engagements, and. Newsmax was also among the top five.
Abortion
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The ongoing debate over reproductive rights is the defining issue in the upcoming US election for many voters. This is reflected in the high levels of media coverage and overwhelming public interest in the topic, especially on social platforms.
Abortion access remains a priority two years after Roe was overturned
Abortion has been a near-constant topic of interest throughout the whole year, with a consistent baseline of at least 100k engagements per week, and more than 5,000 articles per week.
The peak in engagement came alongside rights being taken away at the state level, as the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a near-total abortion ban dating back to 1864 was enforceable in the wake of Roe being overturned.
Interest also rose in August during the DNC and immediately after the presidential debate, as Harris has made this a key policy platform.
Top Articles highlight lack of abortion access
Articles about fact-checks were among some of the most engaged overall, but the top story came from ProPublica, who reported on the impact of a lack of abortion access, and the impact it can have on delaying medical care.
These personal stories are often highly engaging for audiences, and the public’s broader concerns were evident from the top stories, with the potential for records of out-of-state abortions being made available in Texas also highly engaged.
Harris makes reproductive rights a central pillar of her posts and policy
Kamala Harris has utilized various social platforms to highlight reproductive rights, with particular focus on Instagram. She has posted 80 times on the platform, and those posts have had more than 6 million engagements.
She has posted more than 400 times across her social channels this year, with more than 13 million total engagements with those posts.
engagements with Harris's 800 posts across social on abortion this year
This is the same amount as all the articles about it have received on Facebook and X combined, showing the extent to which has made herself a leader in the discussion around reproductive rights .
engagements with media coverage of abortion
View this post on Instagram
Health care
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Health care remains a top priority for Americans in the upcoming election, according to polling, with plans from each candidate top of mind for the public.
Trump’s “concept of a plan” that he raised at the debate captured the most attention of these, but it is still a conversation that is significantly less prevalent than in 2020, when Medicare for All debates were actively raging.
Trump’s “concept of a plan”
During the debate on Sept 10th, Trump struggled to answer a question about his healthcare plan, stating that he had “concepts of a plan.” His response did receive some media coverage, but it was on social media that it truly resonated with the public.
Now This Impact received over 119k engagements with its TikTok dissecting JD Vance defending the comments made by Trump, highlighting in particular the fact that his plan would negatively affect those with pre-existing conditions.
@nowthisimpact someone tell JD Vance that we already tried this back in 2010 — and, spoiler: it didn’t work #jdvance #healthcare #election ♬ original sound - NowThis Impact
RFK Jr.’s alliance with Trump
There are individuals beyond the two major presidential candidates that have the power to wield influence over health care decisions and draw public attention. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a key influencer on social media after suspending his own presidential campaign and endorsing Trump.
He’s most recently captured interest on X with a video discussing the harmful chemicals in American food products, and his plan to work alongside Trump to tackle those concerns, with this post alone receiving more than 150k engagements.
The Democrats, who claim to be all about health care have stood by watching other countries ban these poisons that make our kids sick. Enough is enough. President Trump and I are going to stop the mass poisoning of American children. pic.twitter.com/Rf04MrF9e8
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) September 25, 2024
Foreign policy
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Conflict in the Middle East and Eastern Europe are top of mind for many Americans, and it is reflected in a huge amount of reporting and public interest.
The topic had more than 20 million engagements despite the amount of articles written being just 50% of the amount of articles written about the economy.
articles written about foreign policy topics
Overseas conflicts loom large in foreign policy
Foreign policy has been the elephant in the room for the Biden administration, with conflicts in Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East dominating that conversation.
The reporting on these topics have been a consistent source of engagement for the whole year, and engagement appears to be reaching a crescendo again.
Iran’s attack on Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah has led to speculation about the risk of a regional war, pushed engagement with articles above a million for the first time since February, when a raft of Russia news, including the death of Putin’s political rival Alexei Navalny was in the headlines.
Recent escalations in the Middle East dominate the headlines
The risk of a war between Israel and Iran is clearly a concern in the US, with the top article being about major powers not stopping the continuing escalations. This had by far the most engagement of any media coverage on foreign policy, with more than a quarter of a million engagements.
While Israel was clearly top of mind, the Russia/Ukraine war is also still very much in the public consciousness, with five of the top ten articles being about Ukraine.
Key takeaways
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- The economy was the most engaged topic of any that we looked at, with 25 million engagements and more than a million articles written.
- The longshore workers’ strike and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts were two of the stories that stood out, with both getting high engagement on social channels.
- Interest in immigration has surged as the election approaches, with Donald Trump pushing it as a narrative and seeing millions of engagements with his social posts on the topic.
- The Arizona Supreme Court upholding a 19th century law that temporarily put a near-total ban on abortion in the state was one of the top narratives on reproductive rights.
- Kamala Harris has made her pro-choice policies a central theme of her campaign, with more than 13 million engagements to her posts about the subject.
- Reporting on health care hasn’t resonated strongly, but some narratives have seen significant interest on social, including Trump’s “concept of a plan”.
- Foreign policy looms large over this election, with the Middle East and Ukraine featuring heavily and driving significant public interest.
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