Iowa Democrats focusing on abortion, climate change and guns: poll

Most Iowa Democrats who plan to take part in the state’s caucuses say candidates need to support abortion rights, view climate change as the greatest threat to humanity and back a ban on assault-style weapons to win their support, a new poll finds.

The CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released Monday found that about 8 in 10 Democratic caucusgoers demand a candidate who supports abortion rights, while about three-fourths say the same about climate change.

About 6 in 10 say support for an assault-style weapons ban is required.

{mosads}Less than half of Democratic caucusgoers want candidates that support “Medicare for All,” free tuition for public four-year colleges and restoring convicted felons’ voting rights, the poll found.

Few respondents said being older was an advantage for candidates, pollsters noted. And while about 60 percent of in-person Democratic caucusgoers said being gay doesn’t make a difference in facing off with President Trump in an election, approximately 25 percent say it’s a disadvantage, CNN reported.

Most of in-person attendees — 54 percent — said a candidate’s gender doesn’t make a difference in challenging Trump. Virtual caucus attendees say differently, with 28 percent calling it a disadvantage and 23 percent calling it an advantage.

The survey of 600 likely Democratic caucusgoers, conducted between June 2 and June 5, has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.