Staff reports | If the election were held by the time of this week’s raucous presidential debate, predictably red South Carolina probably would have sent its electoral college votes to GOP presidential contender Donald Trump based on a new Winthrop Poll.
In a sample of 475 likely voters polled Sept. 18 to Sept. 26, 42 percent of respondents preferred Trump while 38 percent picked Clinton. The 4 percentage point difference , however, was within the poll’s 4.5 percent margin of error, which means the election could be even closer — especially after one report illustrated there are more Google searches for Clinton than Trump after the debate. [At the time of publication, the search interest is more like the poll results, above. More.]
Drilling down into the results, two in five likely voters viewed Clinton and Trump favorably, while slightly more (57 percent) viewed Clinton as unfavorable compared to Trump (52 percent).
Voters had differing perceptions of the candidates in terms of being capable and honesty A majority of likely voters (52 percent) thought Clinton was capable, compared to 48 percent for Trump. A majority did not describe either as honest, with 35 percent saying they thought Trump was honest and 23 percent characterizing Clinton as honest.
“While Clinton is seen as the more capable candidate, she is also viewed as more dishonest,” said Winthrop Poll Director Scott Huffmon. “However, both candidates are setting records for being viewed unfavorably. While Trump has the lead, these factors may contribute to why he is underperforming expectations of a hypothetical generic Republican versus generic Democrat matchup.”
In recent weeks, Trump has led South Carolina polls from 7 percent to 13 percent, with the exception of two late August polls that placed the race even. That gave hope to South Carolina Democrats that they might make the state turn blue in the presidential election.
Some other results from the Winthrop Poll:
Favorability. President Obama’s favorability rose to 48 percent, but disapproval is almost the same at 50 percent of all respondents. Gov. Nikki Haley’s approval is 57 percent while U.S. Sen. Tim Scott’s approval is 52 percent. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s approval is 38 percent, compared to a disapproval of 41 percent.
Direction of the country, state. Seven in 10 respondents said they thought the country was going in the wrong direction, while 49 percent of voters thought the state was going in the right direction. Some 61 percent of South Carolinians thought he state’s economy was good or very good.
“With 70 percent of respondents feeling that the country is headed in the wrong direction, it’s not hard to imagine that many are feeling uncertain or that the American way of life is being threatened,” Huffmon said.
Race, issues. For the first time in the Winthrop Poll, race came up as one of the top issues that concerned South Carolinians with almost 10 percent saying it was the most important issue in the country and 6.5 percent saying it was the state’s most pressing problem. Other responses to a question seeking the nation’s most important issue: Economy (11.3 percent), race (9.8 percent), terrorism (8.3 percent), politicians/government (7.8 percent) and immigration (6.7 percent). The key state issue was education (12.4 percent) followed by jobs, race, roads and politicians.
“The rise for concern over racism and racial divisiveness hardly seems surprising given growing attention to the death of black men in confrontations with police, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the racial undercurrents that have marked this presidential contest,” Huffmon added.
Equal pay. More than four in five respondents (81 percent) said they favored the state passing a law “requiring private companies to pay the same amount to men and women with the same job and experience while still allowing for different pay based on seniority or job performance.”
Conservation Bank. Seventy-nine percent of respondents supported the reauthorization of the S.C. Conservation Bank, which expires in 2018.
Tea party. Only 4 percent of all respondents and 8 percent of Republicans said they were members of the tea party movement.
Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!