US Voters Favoring Republicans Over Democrats in Combating Terrorism Near Record High

WASHINGTON, October 6 (Sputnik) - The gap in public perception between the Republican and Democratic parties as capable of defending against the threat of terrorism has reached the highest point since the Obama era, a Gallup Poll said on Wednesday.

"Americans typically see the Republican Party as more capable on national security matters, but the 15-point gap in favor of the GOP [Republicans] this year is the largest since a 16-point advantage in 2015. The party had an even larger 23-point gap in 2014, a time when the Obama administration was struggling to deal with the rise of the Islamic State [banned in Russia] in Iraq and renewed Middle East violence, among other issues," the release said.

On security matters, voters favored Republicans by a 54-39 percent margin, and at ensuring the nation remains prosperous by a 50-41 percent margin, a press release explaining the poll said.

The nine-point edge on ensuring future prosperity is its largest since 2014, the release added.

Despite the Republican advantage on security and economic issues, the Democratic Party still maintains a slight edge in overall favorability, as it has for nearly all of the past decade even as the Republicans led on the two issues cited in the poll, according to the release.

The poll was conducted September 1-17 with telephone interviews from a random sample of 1,005 US adults in all 50 US States with a margin of error of plus or minus 4%, Gallup said.