Manfred Quayle, a political scientist at Ohio State University who studies voters for political reasons. “People who are really engaged and focused look at the presidential race as a proxy for something much more fundamental. You don’t have to look very far to find an ideological split.”
The most glaring divide in 2016 is between Clinton and Trump.
Clinton has the Democratic base supporting her, but not so much the base of Trump’s supporters, who are largely white and working class. Clinton continues to appeal to a broader swath of voters than Trump, who in his concession speech earlier this year appeared to be fighting to the death during a debate with Clinton.
A Gallup poll released Thursday showed Clinton had a 44 percent approval rating compared to Trump’s 40 percent. About six months ago, the same poll found Clinton with a 55 percent approval rating.
In Gallup’s polling in 2012, Clinton won Obama’s endorsement 56-40 percent. Even with Trump at the top of the ticket, Clinton has kept her lead.
The Gallup poll shows Clinton in the lead among Democrats 53 percent to 46 percent overall. But that’s a change from an 11-point Democratic gap in 2012, though Democrats in 2012 and 2015 were not equally split on the presidential candidate.
A Quinnipiac University poll this month, the first one that showed Clinton leading both Republicans (38-37) and Democrats (42-41), was significantly better. In that poll, Clinton led Trump 54-43 percent among registered voters.
Quinnipiac has Trump with a 4-point lead in a head-to-head matchup with Clinton as well, though the GOP lead is closer, at 4 points. Clinton has a 10-point lead on Trump on who would be the best commander-in-chief, while Trump’s strongest support comes from Republican voters overall.
Trump’s campaign has been fighting the perception, which he has often cast as unfair, that he is an outlier on some issues. He has a more moderate social agenda, and he has called for the need for a federal minimum wage of $10.10 per hour, and for employers to pay workers for every hour they spend.
Clinton, however, has supported raising wages and advocating a raise in the minimum wage in the past, arguing it would affect the very poor, who often lack other income, and be good for workers, who generally would see higher wages.
“It’s