As candidates’ attacks on each other become increasingly barbed — as evidenced in the recent Republican debate in Greenville, South Carolina — a new poll has come out with a surprising result to one specific question asked of 3,000 surveyed voters.
When a voter states that he or she “somewhat” or “strongly” agrees with the statement, “People like me don’t have any say about what the government does,” that person has a 86.5% chance of being a Donald Trump supporter.
According to the survey, the role of “people like me don’t have any say…” is not significantly related to preference for Cruz, Rubio, Clinton, or Sanders as the first choice for party nominee.
Analysts from the polling outfit — Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California — explain how that one specific question taps into the populist viewpoint of voters who agree with Trump on immigration issues but favor more liberal economic policies than those suggested by other Republican candidates.
The pollsters also concluded that this increased preference for Trump stands regardless of other demographic characteristics of the individual respondent, including gender, age, race/ethnicity, employment status, educational attainment, household income, attitudes towards Muslims, attitudes towards illegal immigrants, or attitudes towards Hispanics.
Rand uses a sample size of over 3,000, surveying the same individuals throughout the presidential election. In 2012, it was the fourth-most accurate of the major national polls.
“It appears, then, that Trump supporters form a powerful populist coalition uniting concerns about immigrants and other groups with support for economically progressive policies,” the poll concludes.
On the Democrat ticket, the survey found that more likely Democratic primary voters see Hillary Clinton as a strong leader than rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Check out the full poll HERE.
h/t: Breitbart