Gary Johnson Beats Donald Trump in a Head to Head Poll

by Aya Katz

If you believe the national polls that the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is using, Gary Johnson does not even get to 15%. But it really depends on who is taking the poll and what questions are being asked. In a poll conducted by the Johnson/Weld campaign consisting of only four questions, Gary Johnson beat Donald Trump in a head-to-head competition. And while Johnson did not beat Hillary in a similar challenge, he also had a sizable number of people preferring him over her.

Here are the questions and the answers:

1. Do you have a favorable opinion of Gary Johnson?

Though 16.7% had never heard of Johnson and 38.1 had not heard enough to form an opinion, answers to succeeding questions were much more positive.

2. For whom would you vote for President if the choice was between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump?

The percentage of undecideds was 14.8%. Those who stated a preference for Clinton came in at 46.4 compared to 38.9 for Trump.

3. For whom would you vote for president if the choice was between Hillary Clinton and Gary Johnson?

Clinton came in at 45.5% to Johnson’s 37%, with 17.6% undecided.

4. For whom would you vote for president if the choice was between Donald Trump and Gary Johnson?

Gary Johnson beat Donald Trump, getting 41.6% compared to Trump’s 37.3. The undecideds came in at 21.1.

The poll was run on October 8-9, shortly after the release of the Trump tapes, and it was conducted by the Johnson/Weld campaign. This goes to show that what answers you get depends very much on the questions you ask. The polls that show Gary Johnson ranking very low are the polls that hardly mention Johnson at all. But when people are given a chance to compare Johnson to the other candidates directly, he ranks competitively. He might even have a shot at winning!