It may seem like the presidential candidates have been in Iowa a lot — but a survey by AARP shows those who’re likely to attend the Iowa Caucuses haven’t heard enough yet. Jeff Love is the AARP’s regional research director. Love says: "Most Iowans are far from being settled in their choice of candidates. Right now, 77% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans, say they are likely to change their minds as they learn more about the candidates."
Love says the Iraq war continues to come up as an issue of concern. He says the second issue is health care, with 18% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans in an open ended question cited health care, when asked specifically about healthcare 98% of Democrats and 86% of Republicans rated health care as very or somewhat important to their vote. Love says those in the survey don’t think they’ve heard everything they want to about healthcare.
Love says it’s a clear finding in the survey that more needs to be said about healthcare issues. Love says affordability and access to healthcare are important factors to those in the survey. Financial security is another issue that was near the top of the survey.
Love says 97% Democrats and 93% of Republicans rate financial security as very or somewhat important to their vote in the caucuses. But he says once again, many potential caucus goers in both parties were unable to rate candidate’s views on financial security, because they don’t know enough about the candidates.
The survey is part of AARP’s "Divided We Fail" campaign and surveyed a total of five-thousand AARP members likely to attend the Republican or Democratic caucuses or primaries in Iowa, South Carolina, Florida, Nevada and New Hampshire.