Poll: Kansans favor Clinton, vexed with state government

Political turmoil could make Kansas a battleground state, according to a poll released Friday by John Zogby Strategies, a consultant group based in New York.

In an automated telephone poll paid for by the Kansas Health Foundation, 47 percent of respondents said they were “very dissatisfied” with the presidential nominees.

In that poll, 43 percent said they would vote for Hillary Clinton if the election were held today. Another 36 percent said they would support Donald Trump and 21 percent were undecided.

And a majority of the respondents rated the state government with the two lowest scores, saying they felt “cold” or “cool” toward Kansas government’s performance.

Kelly Arnold, elected state chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, said via e-mail that polling proved inaccurate during the 2014 gubernatorial race.

“We saw in the last election how inaccurate polling data was from these organizations that have an agenda,” he wrote.

“Kansas is and always will vote for the Republican candidate for President. If Democrats were in the lead in federal races in Kansas, wouldn’t they have one credible candidate for Congress or Senate?”

John Zogby, CEO of the polling company, said the poll is a snapshot of the time it was taken.

The poll was conducted statewide from June 4 to 6, via automated phone calls, with 433 registered voters. Zogby said the poll was demographically weighted for Kansas’ 2012 presidential election turnouts. The company says its margin of error was plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

Lyndon B. Johnson was the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state. That was in 1964.

“It’s significant that she leads here – it’s very significant,” Zogby said of Clinton. “I mean Kansas is red ... it’s a statement about Trump and the fact that the GOP nominee should be leading.”

Education tops list of issues

When asked what “presses your buttons and drives your choice of a candidate,” respondents said education topped the list, followed by “other” and family values, based on the poll.

In Kansas, the Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature failed to make school funding equitable. If state lawmakers don’t pass a new bill in June that equitably funds education, the state’s schools could close in July.

The survey also focused on Kansas state government. The questions used a scale of cold, cool, neutral, slightly warm, warm and unsure.

Zogby said his results revealed widespread dissatisfaction with state government. Among the results:

 

▪ 61 percent answered with the worst possible score for the state government’s overall performance.

▪ 51 percent answered with the worst score for the state’s ability to hold the line on spending and save taxpayers money.

▪ 51 percent answered with the worst score for the state’s education spending, answering whether or not the state spends enough to ensure a quality education

▪ 46 percent answered with the worst score for the state providing a safety net for the poor.

▪ 41 percent answered with the worst score for the state’s economic development and job growth.

▪ 40 percent answered with the worst score for the state maintaining infrastructure in the state, such as roads and bridges.

More about the poll

A plurality of participants were Republican (41 percent), over the age of 60 (44 percent), college graduates (50 percent), affiliated as Protestant (51 percent) and were women (53 percent).

Zogby said the poll was weighted to closely mirror the 2012 presidential election turnout.

He said even though some believe the elections could garner more young voter turnout, it’s unlikely that turnout would be drastically different from the previous election.

The Kansas Health Foundation commissioned Zogby’s poll and brought him to Wichita to talk about his results Friday as part of its Kansas Health Foundation Symposium.

Zogby’s comments about the poll

Zogby said the poll shows people are jaded.

“People are very angry,” he said. “There’s a sense – whether it’s white or black, upper middle class, lower middle class – there’s a sense of betrayal, not simply in Kansas.”

He echoed the criticisms heard regularly on national TV news outlets, saying the sense of betrayal is “why a 74-year-old socialist becomes a finalist in the Democratic race for a nomination, and why Donald Trump, and then Ted Cruz as well, are the finalists in the GOP. It speaks to a sense of being fed up.”

“We have six months to go for the election to take shape, but this is where we are now,” Zogby said.

This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Poll: Kansans favor Clinton, vexed with state government."