Hillary Clinton Has Few Fans in the Military

Hillary Clinton is still in line to win the Democratic Party's nomination to be the next commander in chief, but few Americans in the military have a good impression of her.

A new RallyPoint/Rasmussen Reports national survey of active and retired military personnel finds that only 15% have a favorable opinion of Clinton, with just three percent (3%) who view the former secretary of State Very Favorably. Clinton is seen unfavorably by 81%, including 69% who share a Very Unfavorable impression of her. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

That compares to the 47% of all Likely Voters who viewed Clinton favorably back in April. Just as many (47%) viewed her unfavorably.

Twenty-seven percent (27%) of military women share a favorable opinion of Clinton, compared to 12% of men.

Rasmussen Reports will release new numbers tomorrow on the Democratic presidential race to see if Saturday night's debate made any difference. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Democratic voters think Clinton is likely to be their nominee, with 50% who say it's Very Likely.

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The survey of 1,473 Military Adults was conducted from October 25 through November 2, 2015 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Voters are more convinced than ever that the incident in Benghazi, Libya in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed on her watch will hurt former Clinton's bid for the White House.

Among active and retired military personnel, 62% of Democrats view the former U.S. senator and first lady favorably, but that includes only 15% who regard her Very Favorably. Large majorities of Republicans and those not affiliated with either major party have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton.

Views of Clinton are basically the same among active and retired individuals of all ages. Blacks (41%) have a much more favorable impression of her than whites (11%), Hispanics (25%) and other minorities (18%) do.

There is little difference of opinion between active service members and veterans when it comes to opinions on Clinton.

Large majorities of adults in all military branches have a Very Unfavorable view of Clinton, with members of the Navy expressing the strongest negative opinion.

When asked which of the two presidential frontrunners they trust more on national security, 46% of all voters trust GOP leader Donald Trump, while 42% trust Clinton more.

In late July, 54% said Clinton’s use of a private, non-government provider for her e-mail while serving as secretary of State raises serious national security concerns.  The Justice Department, a congressional committee and several court cases are now probing the matter. Fifty-nine percent (59%) think it’s likely she broke the law by sending and receiving e-mails containing classified information through this private e-mail server.

Just 31% of voters say they trust Clinton.

In surveys for years, voters consistently have give the U.S. military high positive marks.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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