Given a choice between four presidential candidates with equal skills and temperament, 32% would prefer a candidate who supported policies like those of former President Trump. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that 21% would like a candidate who supported policies like those of Senator Bernie Sanders; 21% favor a traditional Democrat; and, 15% favor a traditional Republican.
Voters under 45 are more likely to support Sanders-like policies. Older voters are more likely to support Trump-like policies.
Among urban voters, a plurality prefer Sanders-like policies. In the suburbs and rural areas, Trump-like policies are the most popular.
Among those with a college degree, a narrow plurality prefers policies like those of Senator Sanders. A solid plurality of those without a college degree prefer policies like those of President Trump.
It’s important to remember that the question focused on the policy preference assuming that the candidates had equal skills and temperament. As a result, it cannot be assumed that someone who supports policies like those of Trump or Sanders would automatically support Trump or Sanders as a candidate.
We have been asking this question regularly since last October. Despite the election results and everything that has happened since, these attitudes have remained remarkably stable. The current results are similar to those found in April.
- These numbers show 47% favoring one of the Republican leaning options while 42% prefer a Democratic leaning set of policies. In every update of the survey, the partisan split has remained essentially even. That’s not surprising given that we have had nine consecutive presidential elections where neither candidate has received more than 53% of the vote. It’s the longest such stretch in American history.
- On the Republican side, the number preferring Trump-like policies is consistently two to three times as large as the number favoring traditional GOP policies. However, younger GOP-leaning voters are more evenly divided.
- On the other hand, the two wings of the Democratic party are always just about evenly divided.
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Note: Neither Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com, nor RMG Research, Inc. have any affiliation with Rasmussen Reports. While Scott Rasmussen founded that firm, he left more than seven years ago and has had no involvement since that time.
Methodology
The survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted by Scott Rasmussen using a mixed mode approach from July 8-10, 2021. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Most respondents were contacted online or via text while 231 were contacted using automated phone polling techniques. Online respondents were selected from a list of Registered Voters and through a process of Random Digital Engagement. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population.
