Poll: A quarter of Republicans say they may vote for Clinton in 2016
Updated 6:20 p.m. ET, 3/4/2014
Washington (CNN) – If Hillary Clinton runs for President in 2016, a new poll finds she may have some support from an unlikely group: Republicans.
According to The Pew Research Center/USA Today poll, 8% of Republicans said there is a “good chance” and 17% said there was “some chance” they would vote for her in 2016. Seventy-four percent said there was no chance.
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Since ending her tenure as Secretary of State early last year, Clinton, who has not said whether she’ll run, has been the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Previous polls showed Clinton as the top pick of Democrats and Tuesday’s survey was no different: 87% of Democrats said there was a “good” or “some” chance they would vote for her, if she ran.
Liberal Democrats are the most excited, according to the poll. Eighty-seven percent want to see Clinton run, while nearly seven-in-10 (69%) of conservative and moderate Democrats want the same.
Although Clinton, also a former first lady and U.S. Senator, has not said whether she’ll mount a candidacy, former campaign staffers and confidants have built a sophisticated apparatus urging her to do so.
The latest poll delivered insight into how Clinton’s time as America’s top diplomat is viewed by Americans.
According to the poll, 12% of those surveyed said Clinton’s time at the State Department was the most positive aspect of her long career.
That number, however, is overshadowed by the 15% of Americans who said the deadly terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 was the most negative aspect of Clinton’s career.
That number jumps to 28 % among Republicans, who would be sure to make Benghazi a campaign issue if she launches a White House bid.
Some Republicans in Congress continue to push for answers for the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, and don’t believe Clinton has been held fully accountable.
Despite concerns about Benghazi, the Pew/USA Today poll found that a majority of Americans saw Clinton as tough, honest and not hard to like.
Likability has long been an issue that Clinton aides and confidants have sought to work on.
When Hillary Clinton weighed whether to run for Senate before her husband left the White House,
aides coached her on how to interact with the public and press, according to recently released documents from the Clinton presidential library.
“Don't be defensive. Look like you want the questions,” wrote Mandy Grunwald, a former aide, in a July 6, 1999, memo to Clinton. Later, she added, “Look for opportunities for humor.”
The issue came up again in 2008, when Clinton squared off with Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic nomination.
During a January 2008 debate in New Hampshire, Clinton was asked why people didn’t seem to like her as much as Obama.
“He's very likable," Clinton said. "I agree with that. I don't think I'm that bad."
Obama’s now famous response: “You're likable enough, Hillary, no doubt about it.”
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She is a certainty. Now if we can just Randy to run against her-thats entertainment. I see the man who wears squirrel on his head made look like a complete squirrel.
Good thing ballots are cast in private, otherwise the 25% would be purged from the Republican Party by conservative purists.
So, 100% of the Dem vote and 25% of the republicant vote...
Who was it you guys decided you were going to run against our champ? cruz? paul? christie (no, he'll be sentenced by then)? walker (oh please, let it be walker!)?
No worries, Mate... you have a lot of time to pick your sacrificial lamb.
The only way Cons have a chance this 2016 is if they grant citizenship to immigrants to vote for them!
No wonder the GOP leadership is running scared.
There is one big question that needs to be answered though. When is Hillary going to release Ben Ghazi's long form birth certificate?
Hilly poor thing is to old now she should just chase Billy around the pasture and maybe teach lying classes on the side for gods sake .
As long as there is Fox News, there will be outrage about Benghazzi. But in contrast, not so much outrage from the attacks on 9-11, 15 embassy attacks, unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, invasion of Georgia, and other republican failures.
All across America, tea bags heads exploded ....
whaaat, i guest all repubs are not drinking tea from the same cup. these repubs haven't nor will they ever support this president. if i have to go through another 4 or 8 years of these repubs saying no to every thing i will go crazy. it has been a very exhausted 6 years. the bottom have not dropped out and the economy have been going north for the past 5 years, maybe not as quick as we would like, but it is way better than going south, which the repubs would have taken us if they were in charge.
Yeah, I may vote for a republican in 2016.
That would be a first for me.
Anybody but Hillary.
Until the Rs start hewing to the center, till they start avoiding controversial social issues that are none of their business, till they start focusing on tell the public what they'd do to faciliate the growth of long-term meaningful higher-paying employment, heck...I'll fiind myself voting for her too.....the Republican party left me....not the other way around...
If there are any republicans left. The way they are losing smart people we might not need to have an election.
It sounds like more radical conservative propaganda lies. Hey, we American moderates and Democrats were not born yesterday, luckily :))))))))) Neither was Hillary , rather she is a very smart gal 🙂 In the confusing gooblyduck of the conservatives, they actually expose THEIR FEAR THAT HILLARY RUNS NEXT YEAR :)))))))) LET CHRISTIE AND PAUL RYAND PEE IN THEIR PANTS. HAHAHAHAHA, VIVA HILLARY , RA RA RA
I'll be more than glad to support Hillary.She will make a great President.
LOL – oh wouldn't that be poetic !!
It just goes to show, there's some stupid Republicans out there too!
Blah, blah, blah, face it dems get their back sides handed to them every time. Hows that Ben Ghazi thing working out, taking any photo ops with coffins lately ????
Republican electorate are not running away from their party; their party already left the station without them.
I'll be voting for her! All the GOP has to offer are clowns.
Well, now we know that a quarter of republicans have at least a smidgen of intelligence. gives me hope for the future.
Huh? Well spank my bottom and call me Shirley. Stranger things have happened....granted, just enough to count on one hand.
That would be totally awesome. We truly need something besides white males making the rules in this country. We need a new direction away from war and aggression.
Polls say whatever the designer of the poll wants them to say. I imagine a very confusing wording or misidentification of the persons being polled
She's not running
This info points to one seriously unstable and tenable situation for TEA-types and Republicans.