New poll reveals that while immigration remains a hot-button issue, a majority of voters oppose a border wall and support allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to remain. 

Contact: Jim Key, (213) 821-2992 or jameskey@usc.edu; or Ron Mackovich (213) 740-6156 or rmackovi@usc.edu

For three out of four likely voters in the November midterm elections, President Donald Trump is a defining issue, according to a new national USC Dornsife/LA Times poll. It also revealed a 4-point increase in support for Democratic congressional candidates since it was measured in a USC Dornsife/LA Times poll last January.

The poll was conducted online Aug. 22 – Sept. 24, 2018 in English and Spanish and surveyed U.S. residents on additional topics that include: presidential approval, key issues in the congressional race and immigration. The survey, results and methodology are available at https://dornsife.usc.edu/unruh/polls

Here are some key takeaways from the first of two releases of data. 

[Graphics by Letty Avila, USC Dornsife]

* DACA is the acronym for the Obama-era policy, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. 

The poll also surveyed residents about the media, Russian interference in the 2018 election, the Mueller investigation, and preferred candidates for the 2020 presidential election. Those findings will be released in the coming days.

The USC Dornsife/LA Times poll of 5,045 adult residents of the United States included 4,161 registered voters and 2,513 likely midterm voters, all of whom are members of the Center for Economic and Social Research’s Understanding America Study, a probability-based internet panel. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points for all respondents, for registered voters and for likely voters.

The USC Dornsife/LA Times poll is a partnership of The Los Angeles Times and two institutions of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences: the Center for the Political Future and the Center for Economic and Social Research. For more information about the Center for Economic and Social Research Understanding America Study internet panel, visit https://uasdata.usc.edu

The following experts at USC Dornsife who lead the poll are available for interviews upon request:

• Robert Shrum, director of the Center for the Political Future
• Michael Murphy, co-director of the Center for the Political Future
• Jill Darling, survey director of the Center for Economic and Social Research

To arrange an interview with experts about the poll, please contact Jim Key at (213) 821-2992 or jameskey@usc.edu

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