New polls are showing that younger voters are considering third-party candidates from the Green and Libertarian parties, which could prove to be a problem for Clinton in the race against Donald Trump.
A score of new polls that came out this week showed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton taking a significant lead over Republican Donald Trump. But if more voters go the third party route, Clinton’s lead may shrink to dangerously narrow levels.
Gov. Gary Johnson, who is running on the Libertarian Party’s ticket and his running mate Bill Weld, are drawing in voters who would otherwise be aligned with Clinton’s platform, especially young voters.
Green Party nominee Jill Stein is seeing her support numbers from young voters grow, although she has yet to garner the same level of support Johnson has.
In the last week, Trump’s behavior has caused him to lose a large percentage of his support. Now, the Republican candidate is down to just his most avid supporters. Soft voters may move over to Clinton’s side when voting on a two-way ballot, but given a third option, many may choose a third-party candidate.
“Trump voters are mainly Trump voters, but Clinton voters are still not quite happy that they’re going to end up voting for her,” said Patrick Murray, a Monmouth University pollster.
Although Stein and Johnson are only cutting into Clinton’s lead slightly, the numbers are consistent, and could prove to be a headache for Clinton later in the race.
