Poll: Most-Educated Voters Favor Clinton Over Trump

PHILADELPHIA – Among America’s most-educated voters, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a strong lead over her Republican rival, Donald Trump, a Morning Consult analysis has found.

But among voters who did not ever attend college – working class Americans to whom the Democratic Party hopes to appeal during its convention here this week – the race is nearly tied.

The survey, which interviewed more than 23,000 registered voters from June 1 through July 14, found Clinton with a 17-point lead over Trump, 51 percent to 34 percent, among voters with post-graduate degrees.

With voters who have only a bachelor’s degree, Clinton leads Trump, 45 percent to 40 percent. While 23 percent of them view security as their top concern, 37 percent say economic issues are their top priority when going to the polls.

Clinton’s biggest lead – 24 points – comes from younger people with a college education. When asked, 54 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds with a college education say they support the Democrat, compared with 30 percent who support Trump.

Trump once said, “I love the poorly educated,” and according to the survey, he has an advantage with voters over the age of 65 who did not attend college, leading Clinton 49 percent to 33 percent. Among the entire population of those who did not attend college, Trump led Clinton by only 1 point during the survey period, 41 percent to 40 percent.

More than three-quarters of voters – 77 percent – without college degrees said the country is on the wrong track, the highest percentage among all income levels. About a third of them (31 percent) list economic issues as their top concern.

The results mirror a Pew Research Center report released last year, which found Democrats with strong advantages with post-graduates. The same study found that lead to narrow with college-educated voters and those with less than a college education.