Trump Wins Union Straw Poll

Posted Mar 3, 2020

In honor of Super Tuesday, we are posting the results of the Union 2020 Straw Poll taken last week. The winner of our straw poll is President Donald Trump who took 52% of the vote. His victory is not surprising since Union is an evangelical campus, but Trump polls much lower at Union than evangelicals in general. This result is also not surprising since the young, educated, and most religiously committed are the ones most leery of Trump. Of course, this result is a vast improvement over 2016 when he came in last place with 2 votes.

The unease with Trump is also seen in that our second place finisher is "A Republican other than Trump." This vote suggests that many Republicans would have preferred a real challenge to Trump in the primary. It also suggests that the unease that many evangelicals have with Trump. The unease can also be see in that "Other" came in In fourth place. Obviously, some voters do not like any of their options or are third party supporters.

In third place is Mayor Pete Buttigieg who leads among all Democrats. This result is also not surprising. Buttigieg appeals to educated, white liberals (yes they exist on Union's campus) and students are more likely to feel closer to someone their age instead of the 70 year old + options remaining. He also tried talking about his faith which may have appealed to Union students. While his sexual orientation may not help him with evangelicals at large, this issue is not as important for many young evangelicals.

Rounding out the vote is Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, and Amy Klobuchar. One note on Democratic growth. In 2016, 6% of votes were cast for Democrats. In 2020, 27% of votes cast were for Democrats. This increase is probably a result of younger people being more Democratic, many people upset with Trump's personal behavior and wanting to replace him, and more media attention the Democrats because they have a contested primary.