As the presidential selection process moves forward on the cusp of an election year, we occasionally poll our users to see which candidates they prefer to be president. Federal employees all work for the president and will be directly impacted in their work lives by the results of the election.
A recent poll in New Hampshire shows Bernie Sanders taking a sizable lead over Hillary Clinton. And a another recent poll on the Republican side shows Donald Trump in the lead with Ben Carson in second.
FedSmith.com polls of our readers often mirror the national polls, and our latest presidential poll is no exception, at least with respect to the aforementioned ones.
On the Democrat side, our users gave a slight edge to Bernie Sanders (21%) over Hillary Clinton (17%). Among Republican contenders, Donald Trump came in first at 26% and Ben Carson was second at 15%.
All Respondents
Among all respondents, here are the top selections for the Democratic nominee for president:
- Bernie Sanders: 21%
- Hillary Clinton: 17%
- Jim Webb: 4%
- I would not vote for a Democratic candidate: 51%
Here are the results for the Republican candidate preferences among all respondents:
- Donald Trump: 26%
- Ben Carson: 15%
- John Kasich: 6%
- Carly Fiorina: 5%
- Ted Cruz: 5%
- Jeb Bush: 4%
- Marco Rubio: 3%
- Chris Christie: 2%
- Scott Walker: 2%
- Rand Paul: 2%
- Mike Huckabee: 1%
- I would not vote for a Republican candidate: 25%
Democrat Voters
Among respondents who identified themselves as Democrats, the results broke down this way:
- Hillary Clinton: 45%
- Bernie Sanders: 36%
- I would not vote for a Democratic candidate: 8%
And interestingly, these self-identified Democrats said they would vote for Republican candidates in some cases:
- Donald Trump: 11%
- John Kasich: 7%
- Ben Carson: 6%
- Jeb Bush: 3%
- I would not vote for a Republican candidate: 64%
Republican Voters
Among respondents who identified themselves as Republicans, the results came out as follows:
- Donald Trump: 37%
- Ben Carson: 23%
- Ted Cruz: 8%
- Carly Fiorina: 7%
- Marco Rubio: 6%
- Jeb Bush: 5%
- John Kasich: 3%
- Scott Walker: 3%
- Rand Paul: 2%
- Chris Christie: 1%
- Mike Huckabee: 1%
Less than 1% of Republicans specified any of the other candidates or said that they would not vote for a Republican candidate.
These were the selections among the Democratic candidates for respondents who identified themselves as Republicans:
- Bernie Sanders: 5%
- Jim Webb: 3%
- Other Democratic candidate: 3%
- I would not vote for a Democratic candidate: 89%
Independent Voters
Elections are often determined by independent voters. Among the federal workforce, those who call themselves independent voters are the largest bloc of voters.
Among independents, here are their stated preferences for the Democratic candidate:
- Bernie Sanders: 24%
- Hillary Clinton: 13%
- Jim Webb: 7%
- Other Democratic candidate: 7%
- I would not vote for a Democratic candidate: 47%
Here are the preferences for a Republican candidate among these independent voters:
- Donald Trump: 27%
- Ben Carson: 14%
- John Kasich: 9%
- Carly Fiorina: 7%
- Ted Cruz: 5%
- Jeb Bush: 3%
- Marco Rubio: 2%
- Chris Christie: 2%
- Scott Walker: 2%
- Other Republican candidate: 2%
- I would not vote for a Republican candidate: 21%
Current vs. Retired Federal Employees
Here are the preferences for the Democratic candidates among current and retired federal employees:
| Retired Federal Employee Preferences | Current Federal Employee Preferences | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bernie Sanders | 19% | Bernie Sanders | 21% |
| Hillary Clinton | 18% | Hillary Clinton | 17% |
| Jim Webb | 6% | Jim Webb | 4% |
| I would not vote for a Democratic candidate | 47% | I would not vote for a Democratic candidate | 52% |
| Other | 8% | Other | 5% |
These are the preferences for the Republican candidates for president among these two groups of voters:
| Retired Federal Employee Preferences | Current Federal Employee Preferences | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump | 25% | Donald Trump | 27% |
| Ben Carson | 13% | Ben Carson | 16% |
| John Kasich | 8% | Ted Cruz | 5% |
| Carly Fiorina | 6% | Carly Fiorina | 5% |
| Jeb Bush | 5% | John Kasich | 5% |
| Marco Rubio | 4% | Jeb Bush | 3% |
| Chris Christie | 2% | Marco Rubio | 3% |
| Scott Walker | 2% | Rand Paul | 2% |
| I would not vote for a Republican candidate | 28% | I would not vote for a Republican candidate | 24% |
The results from our latest poll are particularly interesting when juxtaposed with the last poll we took of our users in May. At that time, Marco Rubio led on the Republican side for all respondents and Hillary Clinton led on the Democratic side. One difference though was that some of the candidates had not yet declared and consequently were not featured in the first poll.
Our thanks to all of our users who took the time to share their feedback in this latest poll. As the election process progresses and the list of candidates becomes more narrow we will continue to take the pulse of the federal community in similar surveys.
