2016: The Year of Who Voters Dislike Least?

Pundits love saying election years are strange or different, but this year it’s not hyperbole. In any other cycle if a candidate had less than half voter support in his or her party it would be headline news. Now, those are the frontrunners. No matter who gets the eventual party nominations, huge swaths of their party faithful will be unhappy. Not in a “my guy didn’t get in” sense but in a very angry totally opposed sense.

Both major parties have significant percentages vowing “NeverTrump” and “NeverHillary.” Now, that’s likely to change in the reality of the voting booth in November, but what will it mean for voter turnout in the general?

Polarized Public Opinonis

Well, it seems the dislike transfers well. About 54 percent of Americans polled dislike Hillary Clinton. Not “don’t favor” but genuinely have a negative opinion of her. Trump, however, faces a “dislike” percentage of 69 percent. That’s a lot of hate right there for a major party front-runner. It encompasses all of one electorate and a significant percentage of another.

A popular meme making the rounds tells the story. If you haven’t seen it, Google “voting for Pinestraw” … you may find your candidate. Or, you may not. Just because a majority dislikes the front runners doesn’t mean, they don’t have supporters. There are still millions of people who are riding the Trump Train and anxious to move forward with Hillary.

Can Candidates Still Convert and Convince Voters?

The question, then, for both the campaign and front runner faithful is this: How can they shift their message to bring in enough “never” voters to actually win in November? If all the “nevers” stay home, it’s a crapshoot who wins, and it will be decided by a scant majority of American voters. Not an ideal situation in any way, shape or form.

While the DEMs feel they have a better shot to unify if Trump gets the nomination, nothing is certain. And the GOP voters who believe everyone will jump on the train at the last minute are flat out ignoring the prevailing vibe in their party.

At this point, neither candidate will do much to change substantively, so they have to woo through message. It will be interesting to see how they pull this off … if they can.

Roman Temkin is a real estate developer who keeps up with the most recent political news.