New poll shows that the military favors Gary Johnson over Clinton and Trump

Image: Doctrine Man Facebook page

Originally published at American Third Party Report earlier today: 

According to a July 20th, 2016 article by Kristina Wong published at TheHill.com, a new non-scientific poll of active duty military service members, those serving in the military reserves, retired members of the military and former members of the military as well as their family members shows Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson as the preferred candidate of those who wear or have worn the uniform.

A total of 3,556 participants took part in a survey conducted by the Doctrine Man Facebook page; of them, 36.7% supported Johnson, 30.7% supported Donald Trump and 15.1% supported Hillary Clinton. Undecided voters came in at 6.7%, while the remaining 10.8% of the participants either said that they would not vote, would write-in a candidate’s name, or support Green candidate Jill Stein; marginal support also went to Constitution Party candidate Darrell Castle and the “other third party” candidate option. According to The Hill, 95.7% of the participants are registered voters. Angie Drake, one of the originators of the poll,wrote at the Daily Kos that it was conducted from July 13th-19th, 2016 through Google Forms and was heavily advertised on Facebook by Doctrine Man, whose Facebook page stands at over 152,000 “likes.”

Doctrine Man broke down the results of the poll by military demographics:

All Active Duty Military Members:

Gary Johnson – 38.7%, Donald Trump – 30.9%, Hillary Clinton – 14.1%, All other  options-16.3%

Family of Active Duty Military Members:

Hillary Clinton – 29.4%, Donald Trump – 27.5%, Gary Johnson – 24.5%, Undecided – 9.8% All other options – 8.8%

Doctrine Man released the breakdown by each military branch:

Army (1,892 participants – 53.2% of all poll participants):

Gary Johnson – 35.3%, Donald Trump – 31.5%, Hillary Clinton – 15.3%, Undecided – 6.7%, All other options – 11.2%

Air Force (1,174 participants – 33% of all poll participants):

Gary Johnson – 39.1%, Donald Trump, – 30%, Hillary Clinton -12.9%, Undecided – 7.1%, All other options – 10.9%

Marines (118 participants – 3.3% of all poll participants):

Gary Johnson – 44.1%, Donald Trump – 27.1%, Hillary Clinton – 12.7%, Undecided – 8.5% All other options – 7.6%

Navy (306 participants – 8.6% of all poll participants):

Donald Trump – 32.4%, Gary Johnson – 31.7%, Hillary Clinton – 22.9%, All other options – 13%

While the poll creators stressed the non-scientific nature of the survey, there is precedent for libertarian presidential candidates attracting substantial support from members of the military community; 1988 Libertarian nominee Ron Paul, during the course of his 2012 presidential campaign, raised more money in donations from service members than any other candidate, including more than the incumbent president and the entire Republican field combined.