Johnson Does Best Among Millennials

By: Elias J. Atienza

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson received 13 percent in a new poll released by Quinnipiac University. This puts him at his highest poll numbers ever. His previous highest was at 12 percent.

Clinton leads a hypothetical four-way race with 41 percent, while Trump received 39 percent. Stein is still struggling to make a dent, with only 4 percent. Most voters are voting against Trump and Clinton instead of for them. For example, 54 percent of Clinton supporters are mainly voting for her because of Trump, while only 32 percent said they’re voting for her because of her platform. 66 percent of Trump supporters are voting for him because of Clinton while only 23 percent are voting for him because of his platform.

Johnson still needs to make headway in name recognition. Only 47 percent heard enough of him in order to form an opinion, while only 27 percent of voters have heard of Stein. However, he has made substantial progress. In March, only 25 percent of voters had ever heard of him.

Johnson also beat Trump in the 18-34 category, capturing 29 percent of them, while Clinton received 31 percent. He also received higher favorability ratings among them, with 36 percent having favorable or somewhat favorable impressions of him, against 16 percent who did not. In addition, 83 percent of millennials said that they favored Johnson in the debates. 57 percent of voters overall said that they favor Johnson in the debates.

Johnson almost did as well with non-white voters as Trump, receiving 16 percent while Trump received 19 percent. He also pulled just as much support from Clinton as he did Trump, with 8 percent of Republicans and 7 percent of Democrats saying that they would vote for him.

From September 8 to 13, Quinnipiac University surveyed 960 likely voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points. Live interviewers call landlines and cell phones.