Last minute polling data shows Bernie Sanders would defeat Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and win the election in a landslide if he was on the ticket.
Aggregated data from hundreds of nationwide polls have delivered Clinton and Trump the lowest favorable ratings of presidential candidates since polls began 30 years ago.
Clinton’s favorability rating has slumped to 41% among all eligible voters, according to the HuffPost Pollster, while Trump has inched up to 38% in the past week.
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Sanders meanwhile has surged to his highest favorable rating of the election season. His 54.1% favorable rating is so far ahead of both candidates it suggests he would trounce them both and win the election in a landslide – if he was on the ticket.
The massive disparity in nationwide popularity also lends credence to the idea that had the Democratic National Committee not illegally “put their finger on the scale” for Clinton – as exposed in the WikiLeaks emails – then Sanders would have won the nomination.
Clinton’s rise in unpopularity follows continued focus on her use of a private email server and alleged pay-for-play conflicts of interest regarding the Clinton Foundation while she served as secretary of state. A recent survey found more than half the country think she has broken the law, and her unfavorable rating has risen among some of her core support groups, including women, postgraduates, Hispanics and liberals.
Trump’s favorable rating has inched up to 38%.
The favorable rating is one of the most basic measures of a public figure’s popularity. Clinton’s and Trump’s historic low scores raise uncertainties about voter turnout in the election, as the most popular candidate by far, Sanders, is not on the ticket.
The open question is whether they can motivate their supporters to show up at the polls. The high unfavorable ratings may mean that voters will be more motivated by opposition to the candidate they dislike the most rather than support of either of these two historically unpopular candidates.
