Polls After DNC Look Good For Jill Stein: Bernie Sanders Supporters Flock To Green Party Candidate Ahead Of 2016 Election
Polls released after the 2016 Democratic National Convention look good for Jill Stein. The Green Party candidate appears to be attracting support from Bernie supporters after their candidate was officially knocked out of the race at this year’s convention. Despite Bernie Sanders himself endorsing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, many of his supporters still refuse to give their backing to the party’s candidate, instead deciding to look outside of the party and to a third party candidate.
According to the People’s Pundit Daily, Green Party candidate Jill Stein is slowly picking up support for her 2016 campaign, with a lot of that support coming at the expense of Hillary Clinton. Recent polling was conducted before and after the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week, showing many of Bernie Sanders’ supporters swinging towards Jill Stein after their candidate endorsed Hillary Clinton at the convention, telling his supporters that they must now give their full support to Clinton.
However, many of Bernie’s supporters don’t appear to have taken his words to heart. Whilst Hillary Clinton has managed to maintain 94.4% of voters who cast their ballot for her in the primaries earlier this year, only 47.7% of those who voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries are certain that they’ll cast their vote in support of Clinton.
In fact, many Bernie supporters who have switched their support to either Jill Stein or Donald Trump don’t believe that the federal government acts in their best interests. Hillary Clinton is widely seen as the establishment figure in the 2016 presidential race, which could suggest why many Bernie supporters don’t feel comfortable voting for her. At the same time, Jill Stein appears to be picking up support from voters who chose a candidate other than Sanders or Clinton during the primary elections.
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That being said, Jill Stein still has hurdles to overcome if she wants to become a credible player in the 2016 presidential election. According to Forbes, the Green party candidate has been plagued by her anti-vaccine views, which could cost her a good deal of support amongst liberal voters looking for an alternative to Hillary Clinton.
Jill Stein deletes tweet that says "There's no evidence that autism is caused by vaccines" https://t.co/whlR3Q280F pic.twitter.com/mZJ1F4ZxTk
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) August 1, 2016
During an interview at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week, Jill Stein was forced to explain her views on vaccination once and for all. The Green Party candidate explained that she couldn’t deny the fact that vaccines have been critical in ridding the world of serious diseases, however, she’s still concerned about them, saying “That people do not trust a Food and Drug Administration, or even the CDC for that matter, where corporate influence and the pharmaceutical industry has a lot of influence.”
Whether Jill Stein can overcome questions about her views on vaccination remains to be seen. However, her presence alone in the 2016 presidential race, alongside other third party candidates, could drastically change the shape of politics as voters become further disenfranchised with the main two parties.
[Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
