Democrats, and particularly the millennials, minorities, and unmarried women Hillary Clinton needs to turn out in droves to win the White House, are less enthusiastic about the 2016 presidential race than Republicans and older white voters, according to a new national poll. And there are signs that these voters may be turned off by the numerous crony capitalism scandals surrounding Hillary Clinton.
Democracy Corps, the group founded by top Bill Clinton advisers Stan Greenberg and James Carville, conducted a poll that found “only 52 percent of Democrats rate their level of interest in the 2016 elections as a 10, compared to 67 percent of Republican voters.” Black voters may be Clinton’s most important constituency, but the poll found that while “African American turnout exceeded white turnout in 2012,” African American “interest trails white interest by 5 points (53 percent and 58 percent respectively).”
The group dubs unmarried women, minorities and millennials as the “Rising American Electorate (RAE)” because they will make up a majority of voters for the first time in 2016. But that does not guarantee that they will show up at the polls. While 67 percent of non-RAE voters describe their level of interest in the highest terms (a ‘ten’ on a ten-point scale),” that number drops to 48% among RAE voters that will make up Hillary Clinton’s base.
“The Democrats’ biggest problem right now is enthusiasm,” the polling memo reads. “The disparity in interest among Democratic base groups is a direct threat to their strategy.”
Though Clinton has leads over her Republican rivals, there are some numbers that should concern her. For instance, independents favor the GOP candidate over Clinton by three points (44%-41%). She does disastrously among white non-college voters, who prefer the GOP candidate over Clinton by a 22-point margin (57%-35%). Clinton also faces a 12-point deficit among non-college white women (53%-41%). Sixty-one percent of voters also think the country is still on the “wrong track.”
Most troubling to voters is the belief “that government is for sale, that the wealthy and corporate interests make campaign contributions that confer economic advantages, often at the expense of working people.” Focus groups found that “participants described themselves as entirely disconnected from their leaders, and described a leadership class more focused on lining their pockets than helping people like them.” Voters also spoke about corporations “sponsoring” their favorite politicians.
As RealClearPolitics pointed out, “this is why Clinton’s wealth, the Clinton Foundation’s fundraising, her decades lived as a VIP, and her missing emails discourage some voters from accepting the leading Democratic candidate as trustworthy, even if they favor the economic and social policies she stakes out.”
Since Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer exposed the numerous pay-to-play scandals associated with the Clintons and their family’s foundation in his bestselling Clinton Cash book, Hillary Clinton’s “honest and trustworthy” ratings have gone underwater in nearly every state and national poll. A recent CNN/WMUR New Hampshire poll found that even 28% of Democrats believed that Clinton was the “least honest” candidate in the field. Pat Caddell, who was one of Jimmy Carter’s top advisers, recently compared Hillary Clinton’s scandals to a “metastasizing cancer” that is already eroding her base.
The poll, conducted June 13-17, has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points.
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