Poll: Irish overwhelmingly in favour of Hillary Clinton’s bid to be US president

Irish voters are overwhelmingly in favour of Hillary Clinton becoming the next president of the United States, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll.

Just 6 per cent of people said they would like to see Republican Party candidate Donald Trump elected president, as against a massive 82 per cent who expressed support for the Democratic nominee Ms Clinton – 12 per cent had no opinion.

The poll was carried out last Monday and Tuesday, before the latest controversy to engulf Mr Trump and before the second television debate between the two candidates.

Fine Gael voters were the strongest in favour of Ms Clinton, with 90 per cent of them backing the former New York senator, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the first Obama administration.

Fianna Fáil voters were almost as strong in support for Ms Clinton while Sinn Féin voters were the least enthusiastic but still 80 per cent of them backed her candidature.

Curiously, the strongest support for Mr Trump came from Labour supporters but it still only amounted to 10 per cent of the party's voters.

Women voters were more strongly in favour of Ms Clinton than men, with just 3 per cent of them saying they would like to see Mr Trump being elected president, as compared to 8 per cent of men who took that view.

Across the social classes, the strongest support for Mr Trump came from farmers with 12 per cent backing his candidature as against 78 per cent for Ms Clinton.

Middle class voters were more enthusiastic about Ms Clinton than working class voters but there was still massive support for the Democratic Party candidate across all social classes.

It was a similar story across the age groups, with the over 65s the strongest in support for Ms Clinton and the youngest 18 to 24 age group the weakest in her favour.

The role Ms Clinton and her husband former President Bill Clinton played in the Northern Ireland peace process has clearly had some impact on the Irish electorate. However, the scale of support for her and the derisory level of backing for Mr Trump is a clear response to the comments made by both candidates during the course of the campaign.

Polls in previous US elections have shown a strong bias among the Irish electorate in favour of the Democratic Party candidate.

The relatively low number of don't knows is a reflection of how interested the Irish electorate is in the US race. There were more don't knows in the final opinion poll in The Irish Times before the Irish general election last February.

The survey was conducted last Monday and Tuesday among a representative sample of 1,200 voters aged 18 and over in face- to-face interviews at 100 sampling points in all constituencies. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 per cent.