The Libertarian Vindicator

New National Poll Shows Gary Johnson at 10%

Posted on May 18, 2016 Updated on May 18, 2016

Fox News released a new national poll today that included the presumptive Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson.  The former Governor of New Mexico is polling at 10% nationally against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  In a Monmouth Poll in March the Governor polled in 11% nationally against the Republican and Democratic front-runners.

In this new poll the Governor pulls evenly from both Clinton and Trump.  This is important because the narrative around a third party is that they end up as spoilers for one of the parties, but the Governor has broad support from both sides of the isle with his Libertarian message.

This is an important poll because over the past few weeks polling agencies and other venues are starting to include a third party in their polling.  Generally they tend to leave out other parties, but with the state of this election there is an appeal across the country for an alternative.  In order for a third party candidate to gain access to the Presidential debates in the fall they must be averaging 15% in national polls. The problem has always been poll exclusion and recently the head of the Commission on Presidential Debates has encouraged the polling agencies to include Gary Johnson’s name in their polls.