Cost of living leads Montana voter concerns in new poll 

With a midterm election on the horizon, Montana voters say kitchen-table issues such as the cost of living and the economy will influence their ballot choices most, according to a Montana Free Press-Rutgers Eagleton Poll.

Living expenses were identified by 80% of voters as very important in determining whom to vote for, making the cost of living the most widely shared priority among more than 800 voters randomly selected from Montana’s registered voter file.

Jobs and the economy were the second-most widely shared concern among voters, with 69% saying the subject will help determine their vote.

Taxes and healthcare expenses tied for the third-largest share of voters rating an issue very important, with 60% saying each would be very important in determining their vote.

Cost of living, jobs and the economy have consistently ranked among voters’ most important issues in elections so far this decade, while other top issues have waned, said Jeremy Johnson, head of the political science department at Carroll College. Terrorism, a top issue for voters in the decade following Sept. 11, 2001, has faded. Job security, which was the leading issue following the Great Recession, has declined somewhat.

“Kitchen-table issues — what we call the more standard economic issues — tend to resonate across the entire electorate at some level,” Johnson said. “Other issues have a narrower focus, but the people who vote on them believe passionately and intensely that the issue should motivate their vote.”

Gun policy, identified by 54% of voters as very important in deciding their votes, is an example of an issue that does not top the list for a strong majority, but remains an important issue that compels particular groups of voters to turn out, Johnson said. Reproductive issues, identified as very important by 45% of voters, are another example.

Immigration, rated very important by 57% of voters, is an example of an issue promoted by campaigns that keeps voters aligned with a particular party, Johnson said. It also produces a large partisan gap in voter priorities.

Among Republican voters, 82% identified immigration as very important in deciding their vote, while just 29% of Democrats gave the issue the same priority.

Similarly, the poll recorded a large partisan gap regarding environmental policy, with 88% of Democrats identifying it as a very important political issue, but only 23% of Republicans doing the same.

Healthcare was a very important issue in deciding how to vote for 90% of Democrats, but for just 39% of Republicans.

Voters were very positive about Montana, with 86% rating the state positively as a place to live, despite 53% saying Montana was on the wrong track. Of those polled, 47% said they have lived in Montana pretty much their entire lives, while 19% said they have lived in the state for 20 years or more. The third-largest group, 14%, have lived in Montana for five years or less.

The Montana Insights Poll surveyed registered Montana voters who were invited by text message to complete an online survey. Data was collected Aug. 27-Sept. 7, 2026. Participants were recruited using a probability-based method, meaning they were randomly drawn from the state’s registered voter file and every voter had a known chance of being invited. The results were weighted to reflect the demographics of Montana’s registered voters. The survey’s overall margin of error is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. The full methodology is available to review here. Detailed results from the latest round of polling, conducted in September 2026, can be downloaded as a spreadsheet here.