Hardline immigration policies and rhetoric thwarted Republican hopefuls in Pennsylvania on midterm election night earlier this month, a recent poll reveals.

The polling, commissioned by the pro-immigration group, Immigration Hub, and conducted by the public affairs and research firm, Global Strategy Group, examined Democratic Senator Bob Casey’s successful reelection bid, showing that voters did not take kindly to his Republican challenger, Lou Barletta’s close alignment with President Trump’s anti-immigration platform.

“New polling we conducted in the immediate aftermath of the election shows that Trump’s anti-immigrant focus backfired with voters in Pennsylvania,” Global Strategy Group Partner Nick Gourevitch said in a press release.

“Voters found that Republican candidate alignment with Trump on immigration was more of a reason to vote against those candidates than to vote for them, including with politically important groups like voters in Pennsylvania who voted for Trump in 2016 and shifted to Bob Casey in 2018,” he continued.

Barletta emulated Trump’s fear mongering surrounding the so-called ‘caravan’ of migrants fleeing difficult situations in Central America. Forty-six percent of voters in the poll cited this as a reason to vote against the Republican challenger, while 37 percent of voters said it was a reason to vote for him.

By a similar margin, the poll found that voters considered Barletta’s immigration platform more concerning than Casey’s. Nearly 60 percent of voters said they opposed the “zero tolerance” approach taken by the Trump administration, through which they separated families at the border.

Coasting to victory, Democratic Senator Bob Casey won back voters in swing districts that went for Obama in 2012, and then for Trump in 2016, outperforming both his and Obama’s 2012 results. He exceeded Hillary Clinton’s 2016 results by more than 10 points.

A plurality of voters said healthcare was the most important issue when casting their vote. Jobs and the economy, and Social Security and Medicare followed close behind. Immigration ranked fourth.

The poll surveyed 804 voters, and was conducted immediately after the midterm elections, from Nov. 6 through Nov. 8.