WASHINGTON — About 4 in 10 Nevada Democratic caucus-goers said they want the next president to be more liberal than the current one, while about half want a continuation of President Barack Obama’s policies, according to early results of an entrance poll of Democratic voters arriving at caucus sites in Nevada.
Those who want more liberal policies mostly supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, while those who want a continuation supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Here is a closer look at caucus-goers in Nevada:
ECONOMY, INCOME INEQUALITY TOP ISSUES
The top issues named by early arrivals at the Nevada caucuses were the economy, followed by income inequality and then health care, according to the entrance poll. Those who said the economy was their top issue were slightly more likely to support Clinton than Sanders, while those who said the top issue was health care tended to support Clinton and those who said income inequality tended to support Sanders.
Caucus-goers were slightly more likely to say they preferred Clinton than Sanders to handle Supreme Court nominations.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Women were more likely to support Clinton and men to support Sanders. Sanders gained the support of three-quarters of caucus attendees under 45 and Clinton of two-thirds of those ages 45 and over. About two-thirds of Nevada caucus-goers were at least 45.
A large majority of women under 45 supported Sanders, but they were outnumbered by women 45 and over, who supported Clinton by a 2 to 1 margin.
About 6 in 10 caucus-goers said they had not previously attended a Nevada caucus, and they were more likely to support Sanders than Clinton. Six in 10 of those who had previously attended a caucus supported Clinton.
About 8 in 10 caucus-goers said they were Democrats and a majority of them supported Clinton. But three quarters of those who were self-identified independents supported Sanders. A majority of moderate to conservative caucus-goers supported Clinton, while a small majority of liberal ones supported Sanders.
SPLIT ON OBAMA POLICIES
About half of caucus attendees said they think the next president should generally continue President Barack Obama’s policies, while about 4 in 10 said they want the next president to have more liberal policies. Among those who wanted a continuation of Obama’s policies, most came to support Clinton. Among those who want more liberal policies, most support Sanders.
CLINTON FOR EXPERIENCE, SANDERS FOR HONESTY
As was the case for caucus-goers in Iowa and primary voters in New Hampshire, Nevada caucus-goers who cared most about voting for a candidate who’s honest and trustworthy or one who cares about people like them overwhelmingly supported Sanders, while whose looking for experience or electability overwhelmingly backed Clinton.
Caucus-goers were about evenly split between whether they most prefer a candidate with experience, one who’s honest or one who cares about people like them, and were slightly less likely to say it’s most important to have a candidate who can win in November.
The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected sites for Democratic caucuses in Nevada. The survey includes preliminary results from interviews with 943 Democratic caucus-goers. The survey had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, with higher margins of error for subgroups.
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