What Do Voters Want?
By 
Above: “The Great Presidential Puzzle,” 1884
Asking what voters want in a presidential candidate is one thing, taking their answers seriously is another. But nonetheless, there are some interesting tidbits here.
Last March, more than a year before the first primaries, more voters valued a hypothetical candidate with “experience and a proven record” (50%) than one who had “new ideas and a different approach” (43%). Just six months later, those numbers had flipped – 55% said it was more important for a candidate to have new ideas, while 37% valued experience and a proven record.
This shift came entirely among Republican and Republican-leaning voters. The share of Republicans saying it was more important for a candidate to have new ideas increased by nearly 30 percentage points over this period, from 36% to 65%. Opinions among Democratic voters remained far more stable. In September, 50% valued experience, about the same as the 46% who said this in March.
In other words, the Democratic base has shifted very little in the last year and I assume that this divide pretty closely mirrors support for Clinton or Sanders. But now that the Republicans have options that allows them to unfurl the racist freak flag, “new ideas” is a lot more appealing than a boring old establishment candidate that would only move the nation significantly to the right.
Political pundits often focus on the “electability” of candidates – how they might fare in a general election contest. But in September, majorities of voters in both parties said it was more important for a candidate to share their positions on the issues.
Two-thirds of both Republican (67%) and Democratic (65%) registered voters said it was more important for a candidate to share their positions on issues than it was for a candidate to have the best chance of defeating the other party’s nominee.
This pretty clearly helps frame what this election is looking like on both the right and the left.
Other, less interesting, notes include that a lot of voters still love the military and that atheists are a horrible evil who must be kept far, far away from the White House.