How immigration could help vulnerable Dems in Trump states

Most voters in nine out of the ten states that voted for Trump and have Democratic senators up for reelection this year support DACA protections for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and majorities in every state think that undocumented immigrants working in the U.S. should be given a pathway to citizenship, according to new Axios/SurveyMonkey polls.

Why it matters: Democrats need to pick up two seats to regain control of the Senate and, as we wrote earlier this week, could lose ground in these races. But polling has shown that most Americans blame Republicans more than Democrats for not finding a solution to protect "Dreamers," and think Trump wants to deport them. The support for DACA and pathways to citizenship could help Senate Democrats keep their seats.

Yes, but most of these competitive states have fairly low levels of immigrants. In 2016 and 2014, Pew Research found that American's voter priorities were jobs, the economy, national security/terrorism and health care before immigration.

Methodology: These SurveyMonkey/Axios online polls were conducted February 12- March 5, 2018 among a total sample of 17,289 registered voters living in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota.