Sanders was liked by unaffiliated, independent voters. Although the growth of number of independents is at the expense of Republicans, Democrats are also topped in numbers.
By nature, independents are anti-establishment … this holds the key to Trump winning the November election. Representing the establishment in Washington and Wall Street, HRC will be facing an uphill battle, or should we say … an insurmountable obstacle in her path to the White House. Years of “experience” will work against her.
○ Record-High 40% of Americans Identify as Independents in 2011
○ Greenberg Quinlan Rosner – Defining the GOP base
Why Sanders Does Better With Independents | FiveThirtyEight |
… since self-identified Democrats are more liberal than independents, we’d expect a candidate from the left to do better with them.
Twelve years after Gov. Howard Dean, another presidential candidate from Vermont is seeking the Democratic nomination. Like Dean, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders aims to outflank his opponent from the left. But unlike Dean, Sanders does much better among independents than among Democrats. In New Hampshire, for instance, Sanders won Democrats by 4 percentage points while winning independents by nearly 50 percentage points, a split we’ve seen repeatedly since then. Some of Sanders’s strongest performances in primaries have come in places such as New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin, states whose rules allow independents to vote in either primary. In fact, to date Sanders has compiled an unexpected record, performing very well in caucuses but having won just a single closed primary (Oklahoma’s).
So why is Sanders doing so well among independents? It appears to be driven not by their ideology so much as their dislike of partisan politics.
