Are Bernie Sanders supporters going to jump ship for Donald Trump?


Hillary Clinton is struggling to gain ground with Bernie Sanders' young, independent-leaning fans, and some experts are even beginning to wonder if the far-left supporters might actually vote for Donald Trump if forced to pick between the two candidates. While such a theory has been rebuffed — Politico Magazine's Bill Scher writes that the "areas of ideological overlap don't come close to outweighing the long list of issues where Sanders and Trump are practically opposites" — others say if Clinton doesn't convince Sanders' supporters soon, it could cost her the election:
History shows us that when disenchantment with establishment politics and institutions is high, as it is today, voters don't always vote along ideological lines.In 1968 and 1980, insurgent liberal challengers — Eugene McCarthy and Edward Kennedy — captured a popular wave of anti-establishment sentiment but failed to win their party's nomination. In November, many of their supporters veered sharply to the right, voting for candidates who didn't necessarily share their political views but who served as a convenient outlet for the expression of their broader frustrations. In both cases, this block of Democratic defectors helped deliver the election to the Republican Party. [Politico]
Sanders supporters are also saying they are increasingly unsure if they would vote for Clinton over Trump. As The New York Times has pointed out, at least one poll, YouGov, has only 55 percent of Sanders supporters agreeing they would vote for Clinton rather than Trump in a general election. Similar polls by CBS/NYT and ABC/Washington Post had that number at just a blip over 70 percent.
There are more Democrats than Republicans in the U.S. according to most recent surveys — and yet a Clinton victory increasingly doesn't appear to be such a breeze.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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