More Active Duty Service Members Say They'll Vote for Joe Biden Over Donald Trump

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More active-duty service members say they plan on voting for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden than President Donald Trump, according to a new poll.

According to the poll, which was conducted by Military Times and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University, 43.1 percent of active duty service members said they'd vote for Biden if the election were held today, while 37.4 percent sided with Trump. Of the remaining respondents, 12.8 percent said they'd vote for a third-party candidate.

The poll surveyed 1,018 active duty troops from July 27 to August 10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

In 2016, Military Times conducted a similar poll prior to the presidential elections and found more active duty service members saying they'd vote for Trump than Hillary Clinton. According to the poll in 2016, 40.5 percent of respondents chose Trump as their preferred candidate, while 20.6 percent said Clinton.

The poll also found Trump seeing an increase in active duty troops that say they have an unfavorable view of the Republican president.

According to the poll, 49.9 percent of respondents said they have an unfavorable view of Trump, with 42 percent saying very unfavorable and 7.9 percent saying unfavorable.

On the other hand, 37.8 percent said they had a favorable view of the Republican president, with 24.5 percent saying very favorable.

Rosalinda Maury, director of applied research at IVMF, told Military Times that the "military tends to follow broad shifts in the opinion of the American public."

"So as the country moves away from Trump, you'll see that in the military too," Maury added.

Joe Biden
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden delivers his acceptance speech on the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center on August 20 in Wilmington, Delaware. According to the poll, 49.9 percent of... Win McNamee/Getty

Among military issues, the poll found 48 percent saying they had a favorable view of Trump's handling, while 46 percent said the opposite. For specific issues, the poll found 17 percent saying the White House properly handled the report of the Russian bounties for Taliban-linked fighters to target U.S. troops; 47 percent said the opposite.

The poll's findings come shortly after Common Defense, a "veteran-led grassroots organization committed to engaging, organizing, training and mobilizing veterans to elect accountable leaders and promote progressive values in 2020 and beyond," led a Twitter movement, using the hashtag #VetsAgainstTrump.

Naveed Shah, government affairs associate for Common Defense, previously told Newsweek, that there were close to 15,000 conversations on Twitter, with over 56,000 people engaging with #VetsAgainstTrump posts, "which means a potential reach of over 10 million people seeing our posts."

Newsweek reached out to the Trump and Biden campaigns for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

About the writer

Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In January 2023, Matthew traveled to Moscow, Idaho where he reported on the quadruple murders and arrest of Bryan Kohberger. Matthew joined Newsweek in 2019 after graduating from Syracuse University. He also received his master's degree from St. John's University in 2021. You can get in touch with Matthew by emailing m.impelli@newsweek.com. Languages: English.


Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more