--- title: Colin Powell Says He's Voting for Hillary Clinton description: Colin Powell says he's voting for his fellow former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this election season canonical: https://time.com/4545542/colin-powell-voting-for-hillary-clinton/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-25T23:32:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:25.334Z article:section: Politics og:title: Colin Powell Says He's Voting for Hillary Clinton og:description: The Republican praised his fellow former Secretary of State's leadership skills og:url: https://time.com/4545542/colin-powell-voting-for-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte525b902ada6e505/6988ab910b72e304176eb7fd/colinpowell.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A Capitol Fourth og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colin Powell Says He's Voting for Hillary Clinton twitter:description: The Republican praised his fellow former Secretary of State's leadership skills twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte525b902ada6e505/6988ab910b72e304176eb7fd/colinpowell.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Colin Powell Says He's Voting for Hillary Clinton by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Oct 25, 2016 11:32 PM UTC  Former Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) onstage at A Capitol Fourth concert at the U.S. Capitol, West Lawn, on July 4, 2016 in Washington, DC. Former Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) onstage at A Capitol Fourth concert at the U.S. Capitol, West Lawn, on July 4, 2016 in Washington, DC.Paul Morigi—Getty Images for Capital Concert by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Oct 25, 2016 11:32 PM UTC [Colin Powell](http://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/) says he’s voting for his fellow former Secretary of State this election season. Powell announced his intentions at a meeting of the Long Island Association on Tuesday, his assistant confirmed to TIME. Those present at the event [said](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/us/politics/colin-powell-hillary-clinton.html?%5Fr=0) he praised [Hillary Clinton’s](http://time.com/4545302/hillary-clinton-69th-birthday/) leadership skills and underlined [Donald Trump’s](http://time.com/4545309/donald-trump-lgbt-ad/) lack of preparedness for the nation’s highest office, the New York _Times_ reports. In September, a [hack of Powell’s email](http://time.com/4492739/colin-powell-donald-trump-email/) account revealed his disdain for Trump and his ambivalence toward Clinton. Powell expressed support for Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012, similarly waiting until late in the election seasons to do so. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4545542/colin-powell-voting-for-hillary-clinton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4545542/colin-powell-voting-for-hillary-clinton/"},"headline":"Colin Powell Says He's Voting for Hillary Clinton","datePublished":"2016-10-25T23:32:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:25.334Z","description":"The Republican praised his fellow former Secretary of State's leadership skills","url":"https://time.com/4545542/colin-powell-voting-for-hillary-clinton/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte525b902ada6e505/6988ab910b72e304176eb7fd/colinpowell.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte525b902ada6e505/6988ab910b72e304176eb7fd/colinpowell.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A Capitol Fourth","caption":"A Capitol Fourth","creditText":"Paul Morigi—Getty Images for Capital Concert","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4545542/colin-powell-voting-for-hillary-clinton/","name":"Colin Powell Says He's Voting for Hillary Clinton"}}]}] ```