Trump and Clinton win DI Caucus with Rubio taking the third most votes overall
In advance of the Iowa Caucuses, we asked The Daniel Island News email subscribers to participate in a “Daniel Island Caucus.” Although it is not a scientific poll with a measurable margin of error, our email subscribes did vote somewhat differently than the Iowa Caucus goers. A total of 205 email subscribers cast votes: 72 voted Democrat and 133 voted Republican. The chart accompanying this article breaks the vote out by overall percentages without regard to party. Below we break out the vote by party caucus and share the adjectives that email subscribers noted as to why the candidates got their vote.
The Democratic DI Caucus – Hillary Clinton takes 57% of the vote
On the Democratic side, our email subscribers cast 41 votes in favor of Hillary Clinton and 30 votes in favor of Bernie Sanders. Willie Wilson got one vote and Martin O’Malley came up empty. A total of 72 votes were cast for Democratic candidates, giving Hillary Clinton 57% of the democratic vote and Bernie Sanders 42% of the vote.
The New York Times reported a much closer race in Iowa with Clinton ahead slightly with 49.9 % over Sander’s 49.6%.
The adjective most email subscribes used to described Hillary Clinton was “experienced.” Twenty-eight voters noted her experience. Many voters also described her as intelligent/knowledgeable, moderate, effective and presidential/statesman. No other candidate in either party scored more than five votes on experience.
When describing Bernie Sanders, voters had a difficult time of coming up with one-word adjectives. Instead, they used phrases such as “cares for the people,” “speaks plainly”. He was recognized frequently for sincerity, honesty, compassion and consistency.
The Republican DI Caucus – Trump wins with Rubio second and Cruz third
A total of 133 email subscribers cast votes in the Republican Caucus. Donald Trump took the most overall votes, with 42 as well as the most votes in the Republican Caucus with 36% of the Republican votes cast. He performed better in our mock caucus than he did in the actual Iowa Caucus.
Marco Rubio performed better than Ted Cruz, who won the Iowa Caucus, coming in with 37 votes, or 28%. Cruz was third with only 12% of the votes, claiming 16 total votes. Also performing well in the Daniel Island Caucus was John Kasich with 11 votes (could it be our Ohio transplants?), Jeb Bush with 10 votes and Chris Christy with 9 votes.
The New York Times reported a totally different outcome in Iowa than how our Daniel Island email subscribers voted. In Iowa, Ted Cruz was first with 27.7% of the vote; Donald Trump was second with 24.3% and Marco Rubio was third with 23.1%.
The overwhelming trait that our voters like about Trump is his independence from the establishment, gaining high praise and frequent comments about his business success, being an outsider, being independent and not being politically correct.
The number one adjective used to describe Rubio was “electable.” He was also repeatedly described as energetic, smart and presidential.
The adjectives our voters used to describe Cruz were: conservative, Constitutionalist, trustworthy and a good communicator.
Look for another email survey closer to the South Carolina primaries. If you’d like to be included on our email list, email katherine@thedanielislandnews.com and put “add to email list” in the subject line.
ANSWER CHOICES/RESPONSES
Jeb Bush (R) 4.88% 10
Ben Carson (R) .49% 1
Chris Christie (R) 4.39% 9
Hillary Clinton (D) 20% 41
Ted Cruz (R) 7.8% 16
Carly Fiorina (R) .98% 2
Jim Gilmore (R) 0 % 0
Mike Huckabee (R) 0% 0
John Kasich (R) 5.37% 11
Martin O’Malley (D) 0% 0
Rand Paul (R) 2.44% 5
Marco Rubio (R) 18.05% 37
Bernie Sanders (D) 14.63 30
Rick Santorum (R) 0% 0
Donald Trump (R) 20.49% 42
Willie Wilson (D) .49% 1
