A majority of individuals rank health care as a “very important” issue in determining who they plan to vote for, according to a new poll that looks at prospective voters nationally as well as in two key battleground states.

Thirty percent of those polled nationally selected health care as the “most important” issue, outranking the economy, immigration, and gun policy, according to data from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

However, the importance of health care to voters’ support fell along party lines. Democrats and independents viewed health care as a more important issue than Republicans.

Forty percent of Democrats and 31 percent of independents ranked it as the top issue, while only 17 percent of Republicans did.

Republicans’ top issues were immigration (with 25 percent ranking it first) and the economy and jobs (23 percent).

Voters especially have concerns with the climbing costs of prescription drugs and access to care. Of those surveyed who ranked health care as “very important,”24 percent view rising costs and 19 percent said access to care as the issue most important to them. Only 4 percent cited proposals to switch to a government-run system such as Medicare-for-all.

Trends in Florida and Nevada, two states with tight Senate and gubernatorial elections, mostly mirror the national survey data.

Health care ranks as the top issue for 26 percent of Florida voters, where Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is fighting to keep his seat from Republican challenger Rick Scott, the current governor.

In Nevada, health care ranks among the top issues for 24 percent of people polled alongside immigration (23 percent of respondents) and the economy and jobs (21 percent). Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican who voted to repeal the 2010 health care law ( PL 111-148 , PL 111-152 ) last year, is in a tight race with Rep. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat.

Majorities of voters in both states said they are likely to support a candidate who wants to maintain the health care law’s protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions.

Heller supports a bill (S 3388) that would attempt to protect these protections if the health care law is struck down by the courts. Twenty state attorneys general are currently suing to have these protections overturned in Texas v. Azar.

In addition to pre-existing conditions, voters are concerned with Medicaid expansion, rising drug costs and expanding health care access.

Florida is one of 17 states that did not expand Medicaid, while Nevada expanded its program in 2014. Forty-nine percent of Florida voters want to vote for a candidate who supports expanding Medicaid, while 28 percent want to keep the program as is. The Republican candidate for governor in Florida, former Rep. Ron DeSantis, is against Medicaid expansion, while his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum, supports it.

In Florida, 47 percent of voters support regulating the prices of prescription drugs while 23 percent oppose that. In Nevada, 39 percent of people polled support drug price regulation but 32 percent do not.

Voters in both states also slightly favor a national health care plan or Medicare-for-all. In Florida, 43 percent of individuals support such a plan while 33 percent oppose it. Gillum supports a national health plan, but the policy is not likely to move forward in a Republican-controlled legislature.

In Nevada, 47 percent would support a candidate in favor of a national health plan while 33 percent would oppose a candidate with this view.

The survey results were conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation from Sept. 19 to Oct. 2 among a nationally representative random telephone sample of 1,201 adults, and a representative sample of 599 Floridians and 599 Nevadans.

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At a listening session with inmates recovering from substance abuse this week, Rep. Dave Brat pivoted the conversation to his own re-election race.

“You think you’re having a hard time — I’ve got $5 million worth of negative ads coming at me,” the Virginia Republican said. “How do you think I’m feeling? Nothing’s easy. For anybody.”

“You think I’m a congressman, ‘Oh, life’s easy, this guy’s off having steaks every day.’” he went on. “Baloney. I’ve got a daughter, she’s got to deal with that crap on TV every day.”

“So it’s tough,” Brat continued. “No one out there’s got some easy life. Right?”

The gaffe comes as Republicans across the country look to cast their action on opioid addiction as a key legislative achievement before the midterms. Brat’s opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, called his remarks “an affront to every person in recovery and the Virginians who die daily due to their addiction.”

Spanberger also pointed to Brat’s vote for the American Health Care Act, which would have hampered states’ ability to respond to public health crises like the opioid epidemic, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Brat’s star rose after his surprise upset of former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014, but he faces a tough re-election challenge this cycle: Inside with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race a Toss-up.

The inmates Brat stressed how poverty and a punitive criminal justice system are obstacles to recovery, according to a report by WCVE, a public radio station in Virginia. One woman shared that she’s entered into 90-day inpatient substance abuse treatment programs without knowing where she’ll live after those 90 days are over.

It's worth noting Brat later acknowledged the inmate was up against steeper problems. Here's a longer cut for more context. pic.twitter.com/80hTiZWAua

But Brat appeared to emphasize personal responsibility in his response, according to an audio recording, encouraging inmates to “find a substitute for drugs, be it exercise, or academics, or reading books, going to the Bible, you gotta find something.”

Brat acknowledged that facing attack ads in pursuit of public office is not as difficult as coping with substance abuse: “You got it harder, I’m not dismissing that,” he’s heard saying later.

Still, critics say Brat’s comments show he doesn’t understand how serious the opioid crisis is. A record 1,227 people died from opioid overdoses in Virginia last year, the fifth straight year of record fatalities, according to a Virginia Department of Health report.

Kim Myers, an employee of the prison’s recovery program, said she felt “attacked” by Brat’s comments.

“How could you compare yourself to someone who’s going to get out and not be able to get a job, and not be able to get housing, and has to pay all these fines and restitutions for being in jail?” she told the radio station.

But not everybody at the listening session felt that way.

Chesterfield County Sheriff Karl Leonard, who introduced the prison recovery program, posted on Facebook that he regrets the low-key visit became political fodder.

“A sitting Congressman, who was trying to make a difference in the lives of those struggling with addiction by learning more about it directly from those dealing with the disease, is now being portrayed in such a negative and distorted way,” Leonard said. “The real losers here will be the people struggling with addiction inside our jail and across this Nation, now who become an afterthought and a forgotten part of the story.”

Brat has dealt with the fallout from the gaffe by touting President Donald Trump’s recent endorsement — he referred to the congressman as “strong on crime” — and and by invoking scripture.

“As a Christian, we love the least of these — we visit those in prison,” he said in a statement. 

Watch: Brat Echoes GOP's Nancy Pelosi Attack Line in Virginia Debate

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Lawyer Laura Mills released a statement Thursday through Ohio Republican Senate candidate Jim Renacci’s campaign providing more details on a sexual misconduct allegation against Sen. Sherrod Brown stemming from an incident in the late 1980s.

The Ohio Democrat has previously called Renacci’s unsubstantiated claims of improper sexual conduct by him “desperate.”

But Mills’ statement Thursday, first reported by Cleveland.com, marks the first time Renacci has provided more than just hearsay knowledge of a claim against Brown.

Mills is a former business partner of Renacci and a donor to his past political campaigns.

She describes her client as a woman who met Brown “in the course of her work” and found herself one time alone with him, “but not on a date,” Mills’ statement reads.

The alleged incident occurred in the late 1980s, between Brown’s divorce in 1987 from his first wife and his marriage to his current wife.

At their meeting, Brown allegedly made “an unexpected, uninvited, unwanted, and sudden advance” toward the woman, “roughly pushing her up against a wall,” Mills said.

The woman “told a friend in confidence about her unwanted and unexpected experience in the late 80’s,” Mills said.

“This was months ago, shortly after the MeToo movement began. The reason she told her friend was to explain why she believed many of the women, as something unwanted had happened to her with a prominent politician. She had no intention of coming forward and did not know that the friend would later contact Jim Renacci with it.”

Renacci referred the woman to Mills.

Brown has issued a cease and desist letter to Renacci in which he advised the Ohio Republican not to “continue making unsubstantiated and false claims about something that never happened,” or else he would face “legal ramifications,” a spokesman for the senator, Preston Maddock, said in a statement.

Maddock highlighted Mills’ previous professional and political affiliation with Renacci and characterized her claims as “anonymous” and “unsubstantiated.”

“This will not be tolerated,” Maddock said, and “all legal means will be pursued against Jim Renacci.”

Brown’s lead over Renacci in the polls has never dropped below 13 points since the two won their respective primaries in May.

President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 8 points in the quadrennial swing state in 2016. 

Still, Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race for Ohio’s Senate seat Likely Democratic as Democrat Brown seeks a third term.

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An Interior Department watchdog found that Secretary Ryan Zinke violated federal policy when he let his family members travel with him in government vehicles, although he had reimbursed the department.

A copy of the department’s inspector general report was sent to Congress and was provided to Roll Call by a congressional aide on Thursday.

The inspector general’s office reached its findings after investigating allegations that Zinke had made numerous trips, including in private and military jets, at taxpayer expense.

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the department, complained that “Republicans have known about Secretary Zinke’s scandals for 18 months and done nothing.”

Zinke had also asked Interior Department employees about whether his wife could join the department as a volunteer, according to the IG.

“He denied that his intention in making this request was so that his wife could travel with him in an official capacity, which would have eliminated the requirement to reimburse the Government for her travel,” the report said. “Ultimately, the employees advised him that making her a volunteer could be perceived negatively, and she did not become one.”

Zinke also cost taxpayers $25,000 when he took an unarmed security detail with him during a vacation to Turkey and Greece, the IG said in its report.

The report comes as the Interior Department is dealing with public backlash over news reports that Zinke had attempted to hire Suzanne Tufts, a political appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to serve as Interior’s acting inspector general. The Interior Department has since denied any such move and blamed it on an incorrect email sent by HUD Secretary Ben Carson, according to The Washington Post, which reported on the IG report earlier Thursday.

The IG’s investigation also found that Zinke in March 2017 directed his security detail to drive someone who was not a government employee to the airport after a dinner, against agency rules.

“Secretary Zinke acknowledged that he told his detail to take the non-Government employee to Reagan National Airport,” the report said. “He said he had asked this as a matter of convenience, but he was later told not to make such requests and he has not done so since.”

The agency cleared Zinke of allegations that a department employee had resigned over requests that she walk his dog. The employee told the investigators she walked Zinke’s dog voluntarily and had instead resigned because she did not receive a position she wanted.

“The Inspector General report proves what we have known all along: the secretary follows all relevant laws and regulations and that all of his travel was reviewed and approved by career ethics officials and solicitors prior to travel,” Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email. “Concerning the internal travel policy, that has been updated to reflect the reality of the long standing situation.”

Democrats and environmental groups have for months been frustrated over the refusal by the Republican majority to hold oversight hearings to examine the spending and travel habits of Trump administration officials, including Zinke and former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who resigned amid a long list of spending and management scandals.

The latest report on Zinke is likely to cause them to amplify calls for oversight and for his resignation, although the White House has not given any indication that it would fire Zinke.

“Being exposed for abusing his power to rip-off the taxpayer while benefiting himself provides all the proof that should be needed to fire Ryan Zinke,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a news release. “It’s time Donald Trump fires Ryan Zinke, not give him a chance to engage in a Washington cover-up.”

Watch: Trump Heads West to Campaign — And a Lot of Senators Do, Too

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