Trump Seen as Less Conservative Than Prior GOP Candidates

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Donald Trump's political views, in the eyes of U.S. registered voters, are the least conservative of GOP presidential candidates in recent history. About six in 10 registered voters have viewed recent Republican nominees as conservative or very conservative, with George W. Bush's 68% in 2004 the highest. Trump stands out from the rest of the group with less than half of voters (47%) describing him as conservative or very conservative.

	Total liberal	Moderate	Total conservative
	%	%	%
2016
Views of Donald Trump	19	22	47
2012
Views of Mitt Romney	11	21	60
2008
Views of John McCain	9	26	62
2004
Views of George W. Bush	8	18	68
1992
Views of George H.W. Bush	9	20	59
Gallup

These results come from a Sept. 14-18 Gallup poll, conducted prior to last week's presidential debate. Respondents were asked to describe the presidential candidates' views as "very liberal," "liberal," "moderate," "conservative" or "very conservative." Gallup has asked voters to rate the presidential candidates and themselves using the same five-point ideology scale in most presidential elections since 1992.

The 58% of voters describing Hillary Clinton's views as liberal or very liberal is similar to Barack Obama's 60% in 2012 and 62% in 2008. Voters were somewhat less likely to perceive John Kerry in 2004 (48%) and Bill Clinton in 1992 (42%) as liberal.

	Total liberal	Moderate	Total conservative
	%	%	%
2016
Views of Hillary Clinton	58	25	12
2012
Views of Barack Obama	60	22	12
2008
Views of Barack Obama	62	24	11
2004
Views of John Kerry	48	32	15
1992
Views of Bill Clinton	42	32	15
Gallup

Nearly One in Five Voters Describe Trump as Liberal

While about half of registered voters describe Trump as conservative or very conservative, 22% describe him as moderate and 19% as liberal or very liberal.

Roughly equal proportions of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (51%) and Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (47%) perceive the GOP candidate's views as conservative or very conservative. At the same time, Republicans and Republican leaners (33%) are three times as likely as Democrats and Democratic leaners (11%) to describe Trump as a moderate.

About one in five registered voters say Trump is liberal or very liberal, including 16% of Republicans and 21% of Democrats.

	All voters	Republicans/Leaners	Democrats/Leaners
	%	%	%
Very liberal	8	3	12
Liberal	11	13	9
Moderate	22	33	11
Conservative	31	38	26
Very conservative	16	9	25
Gallup, Sept. 14-18, 2016

Perceptions that Trump is liberal could be related to his former left-leaning stances on issues such as abortion, gun rights and healthcare. His current views on trade often align with liberal economists. It's worth noting that while only 5% of registered voters don't have an opinion on the ideology of Clinton's political views, 12% have no opinion on Trump's views.

About Six in 10 Voters Say Clinton Is Liberal

U.S. voters are most likely to describe Clinton as liberal (31%) or very liberal (27%). One in four consider her a political moderate (25%), while much smaller percentages describe her as conservative (9%) or very conservative (3%).

Perceptions of Clinton's ideology differ sharply by voters' partisan identification or leanings. More than three-quarters of registered voters who identify as Republicans or as Republican-leaning independents (77%) describe Clinton as liberal or very liberal, compared with 41% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.

And while few Republicans and Republican leaners describe Clinton as either conservative or very conservative (6%), a sizable minority of Democrats and Democratic leaners (17%) describe Clinton's political views this way.

	All voters	Republicans/Leaners	Democrats/Leaners
	%	%	%
Very liberal	27	49	6
Liberal	31	28	35
Moderate	25	10	40
Conservative	9	4	13
Very conservative	3	2	4
Gallup, Sept. 14-18, 2016

Half of Voters Say Clinton Is More Liberal Than They Are

While about half of registered voters describe Clinton's political views as "a lot more liberal" or "somewhat more liberal" than their own, they are divided as to whether Trump is more conservative (35%) or more liberal (31%) than they are.

One in four Americans describe themselves as very liberal (8%) or liberal (17%), while more than one in three say their political views are moderate (37%). Thirty-six percent describe their political views as conservative, including 9% who say they are very conservative.

Gallup combined voters' self-reported ideology and their ratings of the candidates to compute political difference scores indicating how each candidate compares with the respondent's own political views.

	Hillary Clinton	Donald Trump
	%	%
A lot more liberal than self	34	13
Somewhat more liberal	15	18
Same views	24	22
Somewhat more conservative	15	14
A lot more conservative than self	6	21
No opinion/Undesignated	5	12
Gallup, Sept. 14-18, 2016

Bottom Line

Clinton is slightly more likely than Trump to represent the ideology often associated with each candidate's respective party, as 58% consider her a liberal versus 47% calling Trump a conservative. At the same time, slightly more voters consider Trump a liberal than call Clinton a conservative. As a result, the two receive about equal ratings as "moderates."

When comparing these perceptions with voters' own political views, similar proportions of voters -- between 22% and 24% -- place themselves and the candidate at the same point on the left-right ideological continuum. Nearly half of voters place Clinton to the left of themselves, while smaller, similar proportions put Trump to the left and to the right of their own views.

Trump stands out more from a historical perspective, however, as he is less likely to be considered a conservative than any other recent Republican presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, Clinton -- who has been accused by some on the left of not being liberal enough -- will have to work to win over those who may feel her views are too far to the left of their own. However, perceptions of Clinton as being liberal are about the same as the man she hopes to succeed as president.

Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 14-18, 2016, with a random sample of 931 registered voters, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of registered voters, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

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