Only 55 percent of Bernie Sanders' supporters say they plan to vote for Hillary Clinton in November, according to a June 14 national poll conducted by Bloomberg Politics. An entire 22 percent of Sanders' supporters said they will vote for Donald Trump in the general election, and another 18 percent said they would back Libertarian Gary Johnson.
Sanders has refrained from endorsing Clinton, and shown no signs of doing so anytime soon. Many of his supporters can't imagine voting for Clinton under any circumstances, as she represents a political establishment they have spent the entire primary season fighting against. "There's zero percent chance that Hillary Clinton could ever get my vote. She's a corporate candidate. I don't vote for corporate candidates. I don't do the lesser of two evils," Perry Mitchell, 31, of Baltimore, told Bloomberg.
Still, Clinton holds a healthy lead on Trump even if she can't convince all of Sanders' supporters to join her side. Eric Brooks, 52, of San Francisco, said he expects Johnson to take most of Sanders' Republican backers so "nobody in this election has to worry about being a spoiler." There is more good news for Clinton supporters, too: Historically, voters tend to drift to their party's candidate regardless of how hostile a primary season gets.
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But that is not to dismiss the impact that Sanders putting his weight behind Clinton could have. "I guess an endorsement would probably sway me," Laura Armes, 43, of Beeville, Texas said. Until then, she plans to vote for Trump. Read more choice quotes from Bernie backers at Bloomberg Politics.
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