The economy is the only issue most voters say is “extremely important” in the upcoming presidential election, according to Gallup polling released Wednesday.

The 52% who said as much is the highest the polling company has recorded since 55% of registered voters expressed the same sentiment in October 2008, when a recession helped propel Democrat Barack Obama to victory a month later.

“Another 38% of voters rate the economy as ’very important,’ which means the issue could be a significant factor to nine in 10 voters,” Megan Brenan, a Gallup senior editor, wrote in a summary of the latest findings.

The survey found that 54% of voters viewed Republican nominee Donald Trump as better able to handle the economy versus 45% who felt the same about Democrat Kamala Harris. 

However, Gallup noted a wide partisan gap that didn’t occur in 2008: Only 36% of Democrat-leaning voters described the economy as “extremely important” to them this year compared with 66% of Republicans.

“Trump is favored over Harris to better handle the issue, giving him a significant advantage in the election, though this is partly influenced by Republicans being more likely than Democrats to rate the economy as an extremely important issue,” Ms. Brenan said.

Among 21 other election issues surveyed, 49% of voters said “democracy in the U.S.” was extremely important to their vote. Another 45% said the same of “terrorism and national security,” 45% named “types of Supreme Court justices candidates would pick” and 41% mentioned immigration.

No more than 11% of Democrats said they trusted Mr. Trump over Ms. Harris to handle any given issue.

In descending order, Republican-leaning voters named the economy, immigration, terrorism and national security, crime, and taxes as their top five “extremely important” issues.

The top five for Democrats were democracy in the U.S., types of Supreme Court justices candidates would pick, abortion, health care and education.

Besides the economy, most voters surveyed also thought Mr. Trump would do a better job than Ms. Harris with immigration (54%) and foreign affairs (52%). 

Voters were equally divided about which candidate would best handle gun policy. Most trusted Ms. Harris more than Mr. Trump on climate change (61%), abortion (56%) and health care (54%). 

Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 941 registered voters from Sept. 16-28. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.