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NH voters ‘not engaged’ yet in Democratic presidential primary
By Paul Briand
The biggest take-away from the new WMUR Granite State Poll on the 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary among Democrats is that voters aren’t interested. At least right now.
The poll was done by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, and it concentrated on the Democrats who are — and who might be — running for the party nomination in our first-in-the-nation primary.
More about that later.
Here’s the most important nugget to come out of the survey.
“…most voters have not yet engaged,” it said, noting that 66 percent of voters have not committed to one candidate or another.
“New Hampshire primary voters typically decide who they will vote for in the last weeks or days of the campaign, and it is no surprise that very few voters have made up their minds about who they will support in 2016,” the survey said.
Part of the reason is the field itself — it hasn’t settled yet into a collection of announced candidates. Why express support for someone if you don’t know whether they’re in our out?
The poll included former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
Of that group, only Clinton and Sanders have formally announced their candidacies.
The other note about voters that shades the Democratic primary is that undeclared voters find the Republican party primary more interesting.
In New Hampshire, undeclared voters (they are registered voters, but not declared as Republican or Democrat) can take whatever ballot they please in a partisan primary.
“Currently, 40 percent of undeclared voters say they plan to vote in the Republican primary, only 23 percent plan to vote in the Democratic primary, and 37 percent say they will not vote in either primary,” the survey said.
As for the poll itself, it measured favorable, neutral and unfavorable feelings toward the Democrats. Clinton had the highest favorability – at 73 percent. She was followed by Warren (62 percent), Biden (57 percent), Sanders (45 percent), and the rest trickling in behind.
A few of them — Webb, O’Malley and Chafee — have a significant number of voters who said they don’t know them. O’Malley has been in the state a lot, but apparently isn’t registering. Webb makes his first trip to the state soon.
The survey noted that while Clinton has the highest favorability, that percentage rating has dropped from 74 percent in February (when the last UNH poll of this kind was done) to her current 58 percent.
Clinton remains a favorite among those who would vote in the Democratic primary. According to the pollsters, 51 percent would vote for Clinton, 20 percent prefer Warren, 13 percent prefer Sanders, 3 percent prefer Cuomo, 2 percent prefer Biden, 1 percent prefer Webb, 1 percent prefer Chafee, 1 percent prefer O’Malley, and 8 percent are undecided.
Live Free or Die Alliance
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Source: http://townhall.livefreeordiealliance.org/xn/detail/4091641:BlogPost:71754
