Democratic voters are nearly twice as like as Republicans to say the environment is “very important” in this year’s midterm elections, a new poll has found.

Sixty-nine percect of Democrats said the environment was very important, making it the third most important issue for them behind healthcare, at 80 percent, and economic inequality, at 70 percent, the Pew Research Center said Friday.

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Only 36 percent of Republicans found the environment very important, falling far behind issues like the economy, at 88 percent, and terrorism, at 87 percent. The environment saw the widest gap between the parties in terms of importance, Pew said.

The survey is likely to come as a disappointment to major environmental groups spending large amounts of money in the midterm elections, including the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the NRDC Action Fund and NextGen Climate.

NextGen declared last week that it has successfully made climate change a “top-tier” issue for the 2014 elections, which was the goal of climate activist Tom Steyer, the group’s founder.

Younger voters were more likely to rank the environment as an election-year priority, Pew found.

Sixty-four percent of voters ages 18 to 29 said the environment was very important, compared to just 48 percent of those 65 and above. The environment saw the largest gap in importance between the youngest and oldest groups.

Women were also more likely than men to identify the environment as a very important issue, with 59 percent, compared with 47 percent of men.