Can Foreign Policy Play A Role in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Race?

Iran, Russia, and North Korea are among the key foreign policy issues that might potentially play a role in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, John Zogby, the longtime American political polling czar told reporters on Friday.

Speaking at the Washington Foreign Press Center, the founder of the Zogby International poll highlighted five most challenging topics that young people in America currently see as the major issues: economy, health care, the environment, guns and immigration.

Foreign policy rarely plays a major role in U.S. presidential elections.

However, Zogby said, it can also rise the top this time "if there is a hot spot, a global crisis, particularly one that either is seen to threaten the American interest or in any way jeopardize the lives and safety of Americans."

A new national poll of voters under 30 conducted by Zogby Strategies and Forbes indicates that the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are falling short of former President Barack Obama’s support among younger voters, raising a new hurdle to the party’s bid to win over President Trump.

The poll found that Bernie Sanders is the favorite of younger voters at 32%. Former vitae-president Joe Biden is second at 16%. Andrew Yang is at 8%.

The survey conducted candidate matchups with President Trump, it shows that younger voters still prefer Sanders, just as they did in 2016.

Can the voters rely on polls which, as some put it, have "broken their hearts" before?

Answering TURAN's Washington correspondent's question, Zogby said, "we need lessons in how to cover polls and how to read them and what they tell us and what they don’t tell us."

The polls, he said, were good in 2016, "if you knew how to read them."

"They captured the national popular vote right on the money,"  he explained.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.