gut issue
hot-button issue

Perhaps surprisingly, this season continues to deal with hot-button issues.

Crime is traditionally a political hot-button issue, especially in election years.

Usually these are such hot-button issues as crime, religion, race and abortion.

Immigration was not a hot-button issue in Austria until the 1980s.

This move has been the political and cultural hot-button issue of a sprawling Brooklyn community.

Knowing it was a hot-button issue with some women, he decided to pass for the time being.

Certainly, civilians' working for the department has never seemed like a hot-button issue.

"The hot-button issues to me are the environment and the economy," he said.

At least according to the polls, Afghanistan doesn't seem to be a hot-button issue.

The matter quickly turned into a national hot-button issue.