Politics as Unusual? Exploring Issues and the 2016 Presidential Vote

Objective In this article, we examine the correlation between voters' opinions on relevant issues and vote choice, as well as where they located Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the competitive issue space. We are particularly interested in the extent to which anti‐politics attitudes, nativist attitudes, and social issue attitudes structured the way voters perceived the candidates. Methods Using principal components analysis of feeling thermometer ratings of presidential candidates in the 2016 general election, we are able to identify two major dimensions structuring voters’ perceptions of political figures. Results Data from national surveys suggest that anti‐politics attitudes were prevalent in 2016, but that the major party candidates were only marginally effective at tapping into this sentiment. Conclusion Relative to other Republican presidential candidates, Trump was more effective in tapping into anti‐political feelings prior to the Republican Convention. By the general election, issue perceptions of Trump were similar to those we see for most Republican presidential candidates. Feelings toward third‐party candidates, however, were more strongly structured by an anti‐politics dimension.