Many voters don't actually recognize the candidates they support


Lack of name recognition can be a struggle for presidential candidates, but for some, lack of face recognition is a problem, too. A new Vox/Morning Consult poll reveals that though some 2016 contenders — like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — are almost universally recognized, others — like Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio — are unfamiliar faces to many voters, including some of their own supporters.
For the candidates surveyed, Republican John Kasich and Democrat Martin O'Malley, both best known for their gubernatorial experience, fared the worst. Just 34 percent of poll respondents could identify Kasich, and O'Malley was correctly identified by only 30 percent of voters.
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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.
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