“I like Trump,” said Zach Anderson, 30, a maintenance technician and a Republican from South Chicago, Illinois. “The country was running just fine four or five years ago with him, and I can only see him doing a better job than he did last time because he has four years of experience.”
In contrast, Steve Sutton, a political independent from Seattle who works in IT, said he is for Biden in part simply because he is against Trump.
In the debate, “Biden seems too old, and Trump can’t tell the truth,” he said. “So those are the two things coming out of it, and those are both, you know, right on the mark.”
- By 2 to 1, 59% to 30%, Trump voters were more likely to say they were “very excited” about voting for their candidate.
- By 2 to 1, 37% to 16%, Biden voters were more likely to say they were “not very excited” or “not at all excited” about their candidate.
After years of sharpening political polarization, most partisans say their minds are firmly made up, including 87% of Biden voters and 89% of Trump voters. Just 10% of Biden supporters and 12% of Trump supporters say they might change their minds.
However, most of those backing third-party candidates said their minds might change, from 56% of Kennedy’s backers to 80% of those supporting Stein.
