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Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Americans give the Republican Party a slight edge over Democrats on national security and prosperity, according to a Gallup Poll released Wednesday. The poll found that 47 percent of Americans believe the GOP does a better job protecting the United States from terrorism and international threats, compared to 41 percent believing the Democratic Party does better.
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Similarly, 47 percent of Americans said the GOP does better at keeping the country prosperous, compared to 42 percent believing the Democratic Party does.
Though Republicans had a slight advantage in both areas, their lead on security was smaller than usual, the Gallup Poll noted.
"The current six-point edge for Republicans is less than the historical average of nine points (48% to 39%)," Gallup's Jeffrey Jones said. "The advantage in favor of the GOP has been as high as 23 points in 2014 when the Islamic State was increasing its terrorist activity in Iraq."
The GOP's slight advantage when it comes to Americans' views on their ability to keep the country prosperous has changed little since 2014. However, the Democratic Party held a slight edge on prosperity for most of George W. Bush's years in office.
After being asked in an open-ended question what the most important problem facing the country is, Americans were about evenly split about which party would do a better job of handling it.
The top issue that stood out as the most important problem was "the government" followed by "immigration," a Gallup Poll analysis showed.
The even division was a shift from last year when Americans said the Democratic Party could better handle the most important problem.
Though many pundits believe the midterm election in November will be positive for Democrats because of President Donald Trump's low approval ratings, according to Gallup, the poll showed that Republicans fare no worse on perceptions of which party could better handle key issues.
Gallup surveyed more than 1,000 adults with a margin of error of 4 points.
