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Earlier this year, the Guardian sought out Bernie Sanders supporters who said they would rather vote for Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton. Surveys at the time suggested a small proportion of Sanders fans, 7%, were willing to make such a switch.



Bernie Sanders. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

We decided to go back to 150 of the 500 or so supporters who contacted us to see if Britain’s decision to leave the European Union had made them more or less likely to favor the Republican Trump over the Democrat Clinton. Our thinking was that the economic and political turmoil caused by the success of a campaign based on nationalistic, anti-immigration sentiment led by a charismatic rightwing leader might have prompted some second thoughts.



Sanders penned an op-ed for the New York Times this week urging the Democrats to bring struggling working-class disaffected voters into the party fold rather than pushing them towards Trump. So what was this group of Sanders supporters thinking, post-Brexit?

About 50 responses were received. Some said they were no longer considering switching to Trump. About half backed Brexit, half opposed it.

Most of those who were still switching to Trump said they saw the Brexit result as vindication of their decision to back the Republican. Except in one case, those who opposed Brexit did not feel inspired to change their voting behavior in the wake of the UK’s decision.

“[The] outcome only concretes my vote for Trump, because I think in the long run it will do us good rather than harm, just like this Brexit vote,” wrote Peter Kartachian, a 34-year-old machinist from California. “These Chicken Littles who are claiming the world is ending because of this will soon be shown to be the empty suits that they are.”

In at least two cases, Brexit has flipped previously unsure voters into the Trump column. One New York woman, Janet H, who asked for her surname not to be used as she didn’t want her family to know she is backing Trump, said she’d been leaning towards the Republican candidate until his racist comments about a judge of Mexican origin led her to switch, begrudgingly, to Clinton. “Then Brexit happened,” said Janet H.