--- title: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: Most Voting Against Them description: The majority of voters are being driven by their disdain for the opposite party's nominee, not love for their own candidate, a survey shows canonical: https://time.com/4321059/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-06T16:25:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:21:02.401Z article:section: Politics og:title: Most People Are Voting Against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Not for Them og:description: Most voters support Clinton or Trump because they don't like their opponent og:url: https://time.com/4321059/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0dcba1c654803c4/69889121e20a871afaa90a0a/trump-clinton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: trump-clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Most People Are Voting Against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Not for Them twitter:description: Most voters support Clinton or Trump because they don't like their opponent twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0dcba1c654803c4/69889121e20a871afaa90a0a/trump-clinton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Most People Are Voting Against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Not for Them > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b4efbd6e-116e-46b6-b786-2e988c4088cd&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 6, 2016 4:25 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton in New Haven, Connecticut on April 23, 2016 (R); Donald Trump in New York City, on April 21, 2016. Hillary Clinton in New Haven, Connecticut on April 23, 2016 (R); Donald Trump in New York City, on April 21, 2016. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images (R); John Lamparski—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 6, 2016 4:25 PM UTC The majority of voters are motivated by contempt for the opposite party’s nominee, not love for their own candidate, [according to a new survey.](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-anti-vote-idUSKCN0XX06E) A Reuters/Ipsos online poll finds that 46% of voters who would support Clinton in a head-to-head matchup against Trump say they are primarily backing her because they don’t want to see the business mogul become President, compared to 43% who say they agree with most of Clinton’s political positions. Similarly, 47% of voters who plan to back Trump say they’re doing so because they don’t want Clinton in the White House, compared to 40% who agree with most of Trump’s positions. Voters on both sides also overwhelmingly dislike their favored candidate. Only 6% of Trump supporters said they like the business mogul personally, and just 11% said the same for Clinton. “This phenomenon is called negative partisanship,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, in an interview with Reuters. “If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn’t have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton.” The poll also finds Clinton beating out Trump if the 2016 election were held today, with the former Secretary of state receiving about 40% support, Trump taking 32% and 27% declining to commit their support to either candidate. The poll was conducted April 29 through May 5, polling 469 likely Trump voters and 599 likely Clinton voters. 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