This is part 3 of our election series. You can read part 1 on past election trends here; part 2 on what election stress means to our texters here. 

The presidential elections are a week away. Issues like the economy, immigration, and reproductive rights have been dominating the political agenda, especially as both candidates have been ramping up media appearances. Here is a summary of what we’ve learned from Crisis Text Line conversations about three key election topics: housing, immigration, and reproductive rights.

The map of Crisis Text Line discussions changes depending on the issue.

In this analysis, we looked at how commonly texters mention key election topics by state and over time.

We looked at mentions of housing, immigration, and reproductive rights in Crisis Text Line conversations between June and October 2024. 

As we reviewed these maps, we found that they looked vastly different depending on the issue. Some issues clearly varied based on the reality on the ground. We saw most conversations about immigration in border states, and more conversations about housing stress in states with large homeless populations. Mentions of reproductive issues, on the other hand, did not lend themselves to obvious narratives. 

We found no meaningful pattern looking at swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) vs. other states, except for reproductive issues, which were mentioned slightly more in these seven states. 

What can we learn from Crisis Text Line conversations on housing, immigration, and reproductive issues?

1. Mentions of housing stress have reached record highs in our conversations recently.

The economy has been one of the key issues of this election, and housing discussions were specifically elevated, for example in the debate between the two presidential candidates on September 10.  Financial stress is a very common topic of Crisis Text Line conversations (15-20%). It has been also increasing in our data in recent years, as has housing-related stress, including homelessness and fears over not being able to pay rent. 

Concerns over homelessness and losing one’s home have gone from about 3% of Crisis Text Line conversations to closer to 5% more recently, an all-time high. Housing stress is often discussed together with unemployment and fears of losing one’s job, another stressor that’s been steadily increasing in our conversations.  

Where do we see the most mentions of housing stress and homelessness?

Based on this map of housing stress in Crisis Text Line conversations, we get proportionally more mentions of housing instability in states with large homeless populations like Oregon, California, Hawaii, Washington, Montana, Arizona, and Florida. Some populations mention housing stress more: boys and men, older texters, veterans/active military, as well as texters with mobility difficulties. 

2. Mentions of immigration are quite rare, but they have been ramping up. 

These conversations are most common in Southern border states like California, Arizona, and Florida – as well as some other states with large immigrant populations like New York.

Where do we see the most mentions of immigration ?

These discussions have been visibly increasing in our conversations in recent years, and we have seen them peak a few times in the summer and fall of 2024. Adults and older texters tend to bring up these topics about three times more often than young people (17 and under). 

3. Texters rarely discuss reproductive issues with us, but when Roe v Wade was overturned, these conversations spiked.

Based on the map below, there does not seem to be a link between restrictive policy environments and where people discuss abortion, pregnancies, and other topics related to reproductive rights. (It is also possible that these issues come up more in places where texters have more reproductive options.) 

While these discussions are quite rare, they did peak visibly when Roe v Wade was overturned, see chart below. Predictably, women texters tend to bring up this issue a lot more than others; mentions of reproductive issues are most common among 18-24-year-olds.

Mentions of politics in our conversations tend to focus on conflict between friends and loved ones. 

As we have mentioned before, mentions of politics have been ramping up in Crisis Text Line conversations in recent months. However, these conversations are a lot more likely to focus on interpersonal conflict, polarization, news anxiety, and social media stress, than about any of the election issues covered in the media – even if some of these issues, like housing and unemployment, are otherwise prominent stressors in our texter’s lives. 

In the unpredictable environment of the 2024 presidential election, many feel overwhelmed or anxious. Crisis Text Line is here to offer support. Text ELECTION to 741741 to reach a live volunteer crisis counselor in English. Para apoyo en español envía la palabra ELECCIONES al 741741.

Methodology note: Crisis Text Line conversations are de-identified. Our texters are not representative of the U.S. population. We used area codes to estimate texter location, and keyword lists to identify mentions of housing instability, immigration, and reproductive rights. For more information on methodology, please email Lili Török, Crisis Text Line’s Principal Research Scientist, at research@crisistextline.org