2016 Presidential Election 'Will Divide' Hispanic Voters, As Third Party Candidates Eat Away Clinton, Trump Votes
The latest presidential national poll has Hillary Clinton narrowly edging Donald Trump, but the addition third party candidates could spell trouble for the major political parties.
Clinton vs. Sanders vs. Trump
In Quinnipiac University's national poll, taking into account all ethnicities, likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is still the preferred choice to be U.S. president over fellow Democratic primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Against Sanders, the former secretary of state leads with 53 percent to 39 percent. Sanders did lead among the "very" liberal voters with 55 percent to 47 percent, while Clinton secured the conservative vote with 62 percent to 30 percent for the Vermont senator.
In a hypothetical race against Trump, Clinton won with 45 percent to 41 percent. Trump narrowly won among independent voters against Clinton, 40 percent to 37 percent. Clinton comfortably won among millennial voters, an age group between 18 to 34 years old, with 48 percent to 32 percent.
The Small Hispanic Vote
She also won the Hispanic vote with 65 percent to 18 percent, while five percent would vote for someone else. The Hispanic vote, however, in the Quinnipiac University poll is a significantly small number. From the 1,591 registered voters polled between May 24 and May 30, only seven percent identified as Hispanic.
Still taking into account the small number of Hispanic voters surveyed, a Sanders vs. Trump race saw the Vermont senator also win against Trump, but the New York businessman also saw his numbers increase. Sanders won the Hispanic vote with 66 percent, but Trump received 18 percent.
Third Party Candidates Into the Fray
The survey also polled registered voters on the addition of third party presidential candidates, specifically Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.
In a hypothetical four-way race, Clinton still wins but with 40 percent of the vote, Trump attracted 38 percent, while Johnson received 5 percent and 3 percent for Stein. Johnson did hit double-digit support among independent voters, at 10 percent, while Trump received 36 percent and 29 percent for Clinton, although Stein wasn't too far off with 7 percent.
With Hispanic voters, still a small number of respondents, Clinton maintains a strong lead with 57 percent against 15 percent for Trump, 10 percent for Johnson and 5 percent for Stein.
"This is a very tight race that will divide Democrats and Republicans, the young and the old, white, black and Hispanic voters -- and husbands and wives -- in the months ahead," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. "Sen. Bernie Sanders can take solace in the fact that he leads Donald Trump, but the cold hard truth is that his own party favors Hillary Clinton by a whopping 13 points.
Malloy added that American voters, overall, do not like the major party front-runners.
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