Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders may be a hit in Iowa, but a new survey shows they have a long way to go with federal employees.
The Government Executive 2016 Presidential Poll of federal employees shows that the Iowa caucus frontrunners of both parties are largely seen as unfavorable.
Clinton, Cruz, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio all had a dearth of support from respondents, with their unfavorability scores outpacing favorability by at least 14 points in the Jan. 27 poll.
Sixty-two percent found Clinton unfavorable, compared to 35 percent who backed her. Cruz also had 62 percent unfavorability, compared to Trump’s 64 percent. Half of Rubio’s respondents found him unfavorable, but 14 percent said they hadn’t heard enough about the Florida senator.
Only Sanders came close to breaking even, with 48 percent respondents finding the Vermont senator unfavorable to 44 percent who preferred him. Nine percent said they hadn’t heard enough about the candidate.
When broken down party lines, Sanders and Clinton are in a dead heat in terms of favorability for Democrats, 73 to 67 percent. Rubio leads Republicans with 62 percent favorability, more than Trump’s 59 percent and Cruz’s 54 percent.
Things didn’t fare much better for the candidates if they were elected. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they would feel embarrassed if Clinton were elected president, more than Cruz’s 45 percent, Sanders 37 percent and Rubio’s 20 percent. A Donald Trump election would embarrass a whopping 59 percent of respondents.
But not liking a candidate doesn’t seem to much affect whether federal employees will vote for them. When asked who they would vote for if the primary were held today, 51 percent of respondents who considered themselves Democrats said they would vote for Clinton, while Sanders polled 35 percent. Eleven percent still didn’t know who they would support.
Trump commanded 32 percent of Republican federal employees, followed by Cruz’s 17 percent, Rubio’s 12 percent and a host of other candidates. Seven percent said they still didn’t know who they would vote for.
A quarter of those polled said they would consider leaving federal service if Trump were elected, while 56 percent would vote for Barack Obama if he ran for another term.
Federal employee support has been up for grabs for candidates since December, when the American Federation of Government Employees endorsed Clinton. The National Treasury Employees Union followed suit, endorsing the former Secretary of State on Jan. 20. Twenty-eight percent of those polled said they considered themselves as Democrats, while 26 percent said Republican and 35 percent claimed they were independent.
The Government Executive 2016 Presidential Poll was conducted by the Government Business Council and surveyed email responses from 688 federal workers from Jan. 20-26. Fifty-eight percent of respondents ranked as a GS or GM-13 and above. The margin of error was +/- 4 percent.
