Thursday, September 17, 2015

Sanders surges past Hillary among college students

                     
 By Bradford Richardson    
      
Francis Rivera / Getty
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) may be the oldest candidate in the 2016 presidential field, but that isn’t hurting him among the youngest demographic of voters.
 A new poll released by Chegg Media Center on Tuesday finds Sanders the overwhelming favorite on college campuses, drawing 59 percent of the student vote.
Former first lady Hillary Clinton, considered the Democratic favorite going into the election, draws just 18 percent support from the coveted college bloc, while Vice President Biden — who is yet to commit to a presidential run — sits at 14 percent support among university students.
The poll also shows that Clinton and Biden are deadlocked at 29 percent for students’ second choice in the Democratic primary.
Sanders has the highest favorability rating among Democrats at 62 percent, while Clinton is seen as the most unfavorable, with 47 percent of students expressing disapproval of the former secretary of State.
The same poll conducted in late June, about a month after Sanders announced his White House bid, found that students preferred Clinton by a 40 to 26 percent margin.
However, the junior senator from Vermont has steadily increased his lead among university-goers.
In an early August iteration of the poll, Sanders took the lead from Clinton by a 40 to 31 percent margin, and in a poll later that month, he was up 48 to 20 percent, while Clinton has been dogged by an FBI investigation into her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State.
Only 6 percent of students identify as socialists, but that has not stopped them from supporting the avowed Democratic socialist.
Students also overwhelmingly say they prefer a “Newcomer/Outsider” candidate, as opposed to a “Washington Insider,” by a 53 to 24 percent margin, suggesting that Sanders, despite serving in Congress for 24 years, has positioned himself as the anti-establishment candidate.
Chegg surveyed 333 college students at two- and four-year universities nationwide from Sept. 7 to Sept. 11. The margin of error is 5 percent.
The Washington Examiner first reported the poll

2 comments: