The poll of 802 Americans nationwide conducted March 21 to 23 offers an-depth look at views on the economy and how they are now influencing political choices. The survey finds that "the economy and unemployment" is the top issue in the presidential election, the choice of 25 percent of respondents, followed by 19 percent who chose "foreign policy, world leadership and combating terrorism." The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The survey found that an even 24 percent of Americans say Clinton and Trump have the best policies for the overall U.S. economy. The two front-runners for their parties' nominations are also dead even at 21 percent on who has the best policies to "increase your wage." And Democrat Clinton has just a 1-point advantage on GOP front-runner Trump on which candidate is best for a respondents' personal financial situation.

"The poll tells us that the battlegrounds over which the election is going to be fought are largely economic but there's no clear advantage for either front-runner going into the election," said Jay Campbell of Hart Research Associates. The poll was conducted jointly by Hart from the Democratic side and Public Opinion Strategies from the Republican side.

Of course, people vote for reasons other than the economy and so it's difficult to say how consequential the results are for the overall election. But the results do suggest a potentially more competitive race when looked at from the view of the No. 1 issue on the mind of the public, the economy.

That's in the part because the poll shows no single candidate's economic policies have broad support. On several questions, the combined responses of "none of the above" and "not sure" either beats both front-runners, or comes within just a couple of points.

Clinton shows stronger support than Trump on health care and on trade while the two are tied on immigration. Trump is seen as having the best policies for large corporations and the wealthy, but it's unclear if that's a negative. Asked what qualities respondents found most attractive in Trump, nearly a third replied "successful businessman." On Clinton, a third replied "cares about people, the poor, middle class, working people."



The survey shows that neither of the other two Republican contenders, Ohio Governor John Kasich or Texas GOP U.S. Senator Ted Cruz have captured the overall public's imagination on any single economic issue. On most, their combined support is half or less than that of Trump's or Clinton's with all-adults.

The conventional wisdom is Clinton has more of a lock on the Democratic nomination than Trump has on the GOP nod. But the CNBC survey shows that on key economic issues, Bernie Sanders is more of a challenge to Clinton than Kasich and Cruz are to Trump. For example, Sanders is virtually tied with Trump 25 percent to 26 percent on which candidate is judged to have the best policy for regulating Wall Street and the big banks. Clinton has the support of only 16 percent of the public on the issue. Clinton leads with support of 25 percent of the public on who has the best policies for the middle class, followed by 21 percent for Sanders and 16 percent for Trump.