U.S. Military Voting Intention in 2016 and 2020

A new poll published by The Military Times contains bad news for President Trump with his levels of support within the U.S. military waning. Between October 2016 and August 2020, the share of active-service members finding the president favorable has fallen from 46.1 percent to 37.8 percent. With the November election swiftly approaching, 37.4 percent of active-duty troops say they would vote for Donald Trump while 41.3 percent would opt for Joe Biden.

That is in stark contrast to a similar Military Times poll conducted in 2016 when 40.5 percent of service members said they would cast their vote for Trump compared to just 20.6 percent who would vote for Hillary Clinton. Noticeably there has been a steep decline in preference for a third party candidate. Back in 2016, 34.3 percent of service members said they would like to vote for a third party candidate and that fell to 12.8 percent by August of this year.