Shedding some light on correlation between political leanings and close friendships in a political season, a new poll has found that few supporters of both Democratic and Republican candidates have close friends in the other camp.
Voters backing Donald Trump in the general election say they have a lot or some close friends who are supporters of Hillary Clinton while even fewer Clinton backers (18%) say they have at least some friends who support Trump, according to the Pew Research.
Around half of Clinton supporters (47%), and 31% of Trump supporters, say they have no close friends who support the opposing candidate.
Conducted before conventions of the two parties, the survey from June 7 to July 5 among 4,602 adults, included 3,834 registered voters, on Pew Research Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel.
Findings say more than four-in-ten Trump supporters (44%) say they have a lot of close friends who back Trump, while another 38% say they have some friends who support him. Similarly, most Clinton supporters say they have a lot (41%) or some close friends (40%) who also express support for Clinton.
Supporters of the two candidates also are far more likely to talk about the election with those who favor “their” candidate than with those who back the opponent. In the survey, conducted before the party conventions, most voters (67%) say the election comes up in conversation at least somewhat often, but only 23% say it comes up very often.
Nearly three-quarters of Trump supporters (76%) say they have recently had a conversation about the election with a fellow Trump supporter, while only about half as many (37%) have discussed the election with someone who favors Clinton. Clinton supporters are similarly one-sided in their political discussions: 72% say recent conversations about the election have been with other Clinton supporters, while just 40% say they have been with Trump backers, the survey finds.
Interestingly, few voters ‘hide’ their election preferences with Just 7% of registered voters saying they would “rather other people not know” who they are supporting for president. Most (58%) say they do not mind if people know who they support, but “don’t go out of their way to say it.” A third say they are “pretty outspoken with others” about their voting preferences. There are only slight differences between Clinton and Trump supporters in these views.
Despite holding clear-cut positions, some have had political arguments, but few ‘major’ ones. Nearly four-in-ten voters (37%) – including nearly identical shares of Clinton and Trump supporters – say they have had an argument about the election. But just 8% have had a “major” argument, while 30% have had a “minor” argument.
Another key finding says election discussions focus more on personalities than issues. About six-in-ten voters (59%) say the discussions about the election have mostly been about the candidates’ personalities and comments; fewer (32%) say they have focused on specific issues and policy positions. In this regard, voters are having conversations about the election that reflect what they say they are seeing from the campaign and news coverage of the election, the survey says.
