Americans Maintain a Positive View of Bernie Sanders

OCTOBER 5, 2018
BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY


Excerpt:

Since the election, Sanders has gone on to use his political pulpit to champion progressive causes, including calling on McDonald's and Amazon to raise their minimum wages to $15, pushing for procedural changes in the Democratic Party's nomination process, introducing a bill to break up large banks and continuing to push for "Medicare for all" healthcare legislation.

After Sanders' advocacy of progressive views on the campaign trail and in the two years since, Gallup recently found that Democrats now view socialism more favorably than they do capitalism. However, given Republicans' low positive ratings of socialism, Americans overall remain negative in their views of socialism.

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, is most popular among Democrats (78%), as would be expected, but a majority of independents (54%) also view him favorably. Meanwhile, more than twice as many Republicans view him unfavorably (69%) as favorably (26%).

Sanders' ratings are mixed among whites, with nearly half viewing him favorably and half unfavorably. But, consistent with their more Democratic political orientation, nearly two in three nonwhites (64%) have a positive view of Sanders.

Majorities of U.S. adults aged 18 to 34 (59%) and 35 to 54 (58%) view Sanders favorably, while his image is about mixed among Americans over the age of 55.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/243539/americans-maintain-positive-view-bernie-sanders.aspx