Trump Supporters: Who and Why

Who

According to several polls, Trump supporters tend to be conservative, white, male, with no college degree and less than $50,000 in annual income.

RealClearPolitics reports that YouGov polls in May-June 2015 showed that Trump supporters are:

(1) Ideology: 65% conservative, 13% very conservative, 20% liberal or moderate, less than a third were involved with the Tea Party movement.

(2) Age: About half are between 45 and 64 years of age, 34% are over 65 years old, less than 2% are 30 or younger.

(3) Sex/gender: Slightly over half are women.

(4) Education: 19% have a college or post-graduate degree; 50% have a high school education or less.

(5) Income: 11% earn over $100,000 per year; slightly over a third earn less than $50,000 per year.

According to a Washington Post/ABC News Poll in December 2015, Trump supporters are:

42% Republican, 40% conservative, 34% moderate/liberal, 32% Independent.
47% male, 28% female.
38% age 50 or older, 38% age 18-49.
42% no college degree, 29% with college degree.
50% make less than $50,000/year in income, 32% more than $50,000/year.
34% are white, evangelical Protestants; 44% are white, non-evangelicals/Catholics.

Why

According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, released on May 6, 2016, Thursday:

47% of Americans who support Trump say their reason is “I don’t want Hillary Clinton to win”.
43% say their reason is “I agree with most of his political positions”.
Only 6% say their reason is “I like him personally”.

That same pattern of voters’ reasons to support Trump is also the case with Hillary Clinton supporters:

46% of those who support Hillary say their reason is “I don’t want Donald Trump to win”.
40% say their reason is “I agree with most of her political positions”.
Only 11% say their reason is “I like her personally”.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, observes that the poll results reflect a deepening ideological divide in the United States, where people are becoming increasingly fearful of the opposing party.