No-tillers and others in the ag industry who participated in No-Till Farmer’s 2016 Presidential Poll this weekend overwhelmingly support businessman Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.
With more than 500 people casting their vote as of 9 a.m. central time today, Trump received 70% of the ballots, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following at 15%. Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party holds 5% of the votes and Green Party nominee Jill Stein came in at 2%. Nine percent of voters preferred none of the candidates listed.
The results haven’t changed much since the No-Till Nation’s Presidential Primary, which was held at the 2016 National No-Tillage Conference in Indianapolis in January. Of the 401 attendees that casted their votes, the Republican Party received 73% of the ballots, with 33% preferring Trump over U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who held 27% of the votes. On the Democratic side, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders edged out Clinton at 61% to 33%.
But compared to our poll for the 2012 election, there’s been a 10-point decrease in support for the Republican candidate among No-Till Farmer readers, as Mitt Romney received 80% of the votes casted 4 years ago. However, those votes have not swung to the Democratic Party — in 2012, 17% of no-tillers voted for President Obama, 2 percentage points higher than Clinton today. Instead, third party candidates have seen the greatest change among no-till voters, gaining 5 percentage points over the 2% they had in 2012, while those who are unsure or prefer none of the candidates are up 8 points from 1% in the last election cycle.
