An overwhelming majority of voters think that presidential town halls should cover a wide range of topics instead of being focused on any one issue, according to a new national poll.
The Hill-HarrisX survey released on Thursday found that 85 percent of registered voters say that televised town halls should touch multiple issues, while 15 percent said that such events should be dedicated to a single issue.
Voters across party lines strongly supported town halls that cover multiple topics. This included 83 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of Democrats, and 87 percent of independents.
The survey comes just a few months after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) faced backlash for voting down a measure to hold single-issue debates.
The DNC defended its decision and championed the idea of using forums instead.
In response to the public outcry, both CNN and MSNBC in August held standalone town halls on climate change.
CNN on Thursday will host another single-issue presidential town hall that will be focused on LGBTQ issues.
Nine Democratic presidential candidates will make back-to-back appearances, taking questions from both the audience and CNN journalists about their plans to promote equality for the LGBTQ community.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will be among those in attendance.
The Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online among 1,000 registered voters between Oct. 6 and Oct.7. The margin of error for the full sampling was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
—Tess Bonn
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