{"id":48271,"date":"2016-08-18T13:58:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T18:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2016\/08\/18\/1-voters-general-election-preferences\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:47:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:47:44","slug":"1-voters-general-election-preferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2016\/08\/18\/1-voters-general-election-preferences\/","title":{"rendered":"1. Voters\u2019 general election preferences"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Currently, 41% of registered voters say they would vote for Hillary Clinton if the general election were held today, while 37% say they would vote for Donald Trump, 10% say they would vote for Gary Johnson and 4% say they would vote for Jill Stein.<\/p>\n\n

Differences in support across demographic groups are largely consistent with preferences at earlier points in this cycle.<\/p>\n\n

There continues to be a sizable gender gap in vote preferences: Women favor Clinton over Trump by 19 percentage points (49% to 30%), while men back Trump by a 12-point margin (45% to 33%). (For more on the gender gap, see \u201cA Closer Look at the Gender Gap in Presidential Voting\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

Educational differences also are substantial, especially among white voters. Overall, voters with postgraduate degrees favor Clinton by a wide margin (59% vs. 21%), with 10% and 5% expressing support for Johnson and Stein, respectively. College graduates also favor Clinton (47% vs. 34%). Preferences are divided among those with some college experience or less: 41% back Trump, 36% favor Clinton (9% say Johnson and 5% Stein).<\/p>\n\n

White voters without a college degree support Trump by roughly two-to-one (51% vs. 26%). By a smaller margin, college-educated white voters support Clinton (47%) over Trump (33%).<\/p>\n\n

And divides across religious groups continue to be wide<\/a>, as white evangelical Protestant voters overwhelmingly show support for Trump over Clinton in the four-way contest (63% vs. 17%). By contrast, religiously unaffiliated voters are more likely to rally around Clinton than Trump: 56% back her, compared with 19% who support Trump, 13% who prefer Johnson and 5% who would vote for Stein.<\/p>\n\n

Profiling the candidates’ supporters<\/h3>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Gary Johnson is currently backed by 10% of all registered voters in a four-way race. When asked their preference in a two-way race, Johnson backers split evenly: 43% say they would support Clinton in a two-way contest, while 42% would favor Trump.<\/p>\n\n

Johnson\u2019s supporters are younger on average than voters who back either Clinton or Trump. Nearly a third (32%) of Johnson\u2019s supporters in the four-way contest are younger than 30. This is roughly double the share of Clinton (15%) or Trump supporters (12%) who are younger than 30. Only 29% of Johnson backers are 50 or older, compared with 50% of Clinton supporters and 62% of Trump voters.<\/p>\n\n

The racial and ethnic makeup of the candidates\u2019 coalitions is also quite different. The overwhelming majority of Trump (87%) and Johnson supporters (79%) are white. By contrast, while a majority of Clinton backers are also white (58%), about a quarter of her supporters are black (24%) and one-in-ten (10%) are Hispanic.<\/p>\n\n

A majority of those who support Johnson are independents (62%) and they are divided roughly evenly between those who lean toward the Republican Party (28%) and the Democratic Party (24%), while 14% decline to lean toward either party. Just 7% of all registered voters \u2013 and just 3% each of Clinton and Trump supporters \u2013 are independents who decline to lean.<\/p>\n\n

More \u2018negative voting\u2019 than in \u201808<\/h3>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Supporters of both candidates continue to voice attitudes of \u201cnegative voting\u201d more now than in the past few presidential cycles. Those who choose Clinton or Trump in the four-way contest express mixed views as to whether their vote is more for their own candidate, or against the opposing candidate.<\/p>\n\n

Among Trump supporters, 44% say their choice is more a vote for Trump than a vote against Clinton, compared with 53% who say their vote is more against Clinton than for Trump. Those who support Clinton are slightly more likely to say their vote is more for the candidate (53%) than to say their vote is against Trump (46%).<\/p>\n\n

Eight years ago, far more supporters said their choice was more a vote for their candidate than said it was a vote against the opposing candidate. In August 2008, 59% of voters who favored John McCain thought of their choice as more for McCain, compared with 35% who said it was a vote against Barack Obama. And fully 68% of those who supported Obama said their vote was more for Obama, more than twice as many as said their choice was more a vote against McCain (25%).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Currently, 41% of registered voters say they would vote for Hillary Clinton if the general election were held today, while 37% say they would vote for Donald Trump, 10% say they would vote for Gary Johnson and 4% say they would vote for Jill Stein. Differences in support across demographic groups are largely consistent with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":306,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[68,42,25,39],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-48271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-trump","category-election-2016","category-politics-policy","category-us-elections-voters","formats-report","research-teams-politics"],"label":false,"post_parent":48283,"word_count":631,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2016\/08\/18\/1-voters-general-election-preferences\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":63951,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":63951,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":63951,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":63951,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":63951,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":63951,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/08\/PP_16.08.17_politicsFeatured.png?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":48283,"title":"Clinton, Trump Supporters Have Starkly Different Views of a Changing Nation","slug":"clinton-trump-supporters-have-starkly-different-views-of-a-changing-nation","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2016\/08\/18\/clinton-trump-supporters-have-starkly-different-views-of-a-changing-nation\/","is_active":false},{"id":48271,"title":"1. 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