Early exit polls say voters want 'a strong leader'

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the second presidential debate.

(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

published 8 November 2016

Early results from Politico/Morning Consult's exit polling find Americans are unusually interested in presidential strength this year. More than a third of voters say they want "a strong leader" and nearly as many desire "a vision for the future" — but just 16 percent said they are voting for a candidate based on whether that person "cares about people like me" or "shares my values."

Intriguingly, the proportion of voters who demand strong leadership is double the percentage who said the same in 2012. Meanwhile, voters' concern about shared values has correspondingly shrunk.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.