Politics & Government

Which candidate has the most aggressive online support?

More Americans saw Trump supporters as aggressive online than any other presidential candidate, followed by the supporters of Hillary Clinton, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Bernie Sanders and finally Gov. John Kasich.
More Americans saw Trump supporters as aggressive online than any other presidential candidate, followed by the supporters of Hillary Clinton, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Bernie Sanders and finally Gov. John Kasich.

Political discussions can get extremely heated, if not outright aggressive. And internet political discussions are notoriously worse.

But Americans have decided that one presidential candidate’s supporters take it significantly further than everyone else. And if you have been on the internet more than a day, you can probably guess which presidential candidate it is.

Donald Trump’s supporters were seen as aggressive online by 57 percent of Americans, nearly double the percentage of the candidate who came in second (Hillary Clinton), according to a poll conducted by the RAD campaign, Lincoln Park Strategies and Craig Connects. The poll surveyed 1,017 people older than 18.

Even 35 percent of Trump supporters admitted the group was aggressive or threatening online, while 75 percent of Democrats said the same of the group.

Coming in second were Hillary Clinton backers, with 30 percent of Americans saying her supporters were aggressive online. About 43 percent of Republicans said her supporters were aggressive or threatening, and men were more likely to see her constituents that way than women.

Following Clinton were Sen. Ted Cruz supporters (21 percent calling them aggressive), then Sen. Bernie Sanders (16 percent), and last was Gov. John Kasich (8 percent).

More than half of those polled said candidates should take a stand against negative behavior by their constituencies.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Which candidate has the most aggressive online support?."

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