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Republicans Couldn’t Care Less About Bush's Vote For Clinton

Former President George H.W. Bush who along with the rest of his family boycotted July's Republican National Convention was outed on social media this week as planning to vote for Hillary Clinton. Bush has not confirmed his vote to the media, but his reported decision has little impact on voters, especially his fellow Republicans.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 77% of Likely Republican Voters say Bush's decision to vote for Clinton will have no impact on their voting decision. Thirteen percent (13%), in fact, say they are less likely to vote for Clinton now versus seven percent (7%) who are more likely to vote for her because of Bush's choice. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Democrats (21%) are far more than likely than voters not affiliated with either major party (9%) to say they are more likely to vote for Clinton because of Bush's decision.

Among all likely voters, 13% say they are more likely to vote for Clinton because of Bush's reported choice, while 12% are less likely to do so. The vast majority (73%) say Bush's decision will have no impact on how they vote.

Bush's son Jeb was an early dropout in this year's Republican primary race despite strong support from the party establishment and substantial financial support. An early favorite in the race, Jeb Bush quickly faded and has been critical of the eventual Republican nominee, Donald Trump, ever since.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 20-21, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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Despite the record turnout for Trump in this year's GOP primaries, 66% of Republicans believe that most of the party's top leaders do not want Trump to be elected president.

With the first presidential debate coming on Monday, Trump has moved to a five-point lead over Clinton in Rasmussen Reports' latest weekly White House Watch survey, his biggest advantage since mid-July.

Only four percent (4%) of those who back Clinton say Bush’s vote will make them less likely to vote for her. An identical number (4%) of Trump supporters say they are more likely now to vote for Clinton.

Among supporters of Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Bush’s reported decision appears more likely to cost Clinton voters than help her.

Just 24% of Democrats said in June that they are more likely to vote for Clinton because of former Democratic rival Bernie Sanders’ decision to vote for her in the general election.

When it comes to which president Americans think is the most influential of the past 60 years, just two percent (2%) of voters name George H.W. Bush which ties him with Richard Nixon near the bottom of the list. Bush who served as vice president for eight years under Ronald Reagan was president from 1989 to 1993.

When Jeb Bush first entered the race in June of last year, 43% of voters said they were less likely to vote for him due to the fact that his father and brother both served as president, while only 15% said they were more likely to vote for Bush because of his family’s political stature.

In February, just 34% of Republicans considered it a positive description if a candidate is described as being like George W. Bush, the GOP president who served from 2001 to 2009.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 20-21, 2016 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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