Trust in the System

The Pew Research Center released a survey on Thursday showing how many Democratic primary voters feel good that the upcoming primaries will select the best candidate for the general election.

Among Democrats and Democrat-leaning voters, 77 percent of respondents say they either felt very good or somewhat good about the primaries selecting the best candidate. Those who support former Vice President Joe Biden in the primary responded with the highest optimism about the primary victor, with 90 percent of Biden supporters believing the primaries will do a good job selecting the best candidate. All other top candidate supports generally felt good about the upcoming primaries but felt 13 to 17 percent worse that the primaries would select the best candidate for the general election.

The survey also asked liberal and conservative voters how they felt about Iowa and New Hampshire being the first states to vote in the primaries. The majority of both ideologies responded that it was neither good nor bad, with liberals voting 10 percent more than conservatives that it was bad those two states vote first.

The first primary vote is Monday, Feb. 3, with the Iowa caucuses, followed by New Hampshire’s primary vote on Tuesday, Feb. 11.