August Poll Finds Student Debtors Support Clinton & Many Remain Undecided

Summary:

• Online poll of 1,500 Americans with student loan debt
• Hillary Clinton wins (43%), Donald Trump wins (23%), Undecided (34%)
• 43 million Americans holding over $1.3 trillion in student debt

Today, college students are leaving campus with more student loan debt than any class in history. The average student debtor now graduates with over $28,000 in student loan debt.

During this election season, the student loan crisis has become a key issue for candidates on both sides of the aisle. There are now over 43 million Americans working to repay $1.4 trillion in student debt, and candidates are certainly looking for the support of these voters. Hillary Clinton has been extremely vocal about the student debt crisis, talking about ideas such as a federal version of private student loan refinancing, and Donald Trump has also offered suggestions to improve the situation, such as ending the federal student loan program and shifting to all private student loans, or the private sector which is also where student loan refinancing is solely offered.

In our February poll, Bernie Sanders won by a landslide with 39.77% of the vote. Hillary Clinton (23.39%) and Donald Trump (10.52%) finished second and third, respectively. In addition, we found that student loan borrowers believe that student loan debt is a bigger threat to the United States than ISIS. 14.63% of respondents reported that they were undecided.

In our June poll, Bernie Sanders held his lead with 36% of the vote. Donald Trump (26%) and Hillary Clinton (13%) finished second and third, respectively. 25% of respondents reported that they were undecided.

Over the last week, we conducted a new online poll of 1,500 student debtors.

Survey Results

Here are the highlights:

Q. Who do you want to win the 2016 Presidential election?

Overall:

Male:

Female:

The results above are quite different from the data we received in June. Since June, Clinton has made serious progress. It appears that Sanders supports have aligned behind Clinton. Since our last poll, Clinton has made a vocal push for tuition-free public education. Donald Trump lost some support, but the decline was within our margin of error of +-3%. Since our last poll, Trump has been relatively silent on student debt.

>> Read More: Student Loan Policies

The undecided group increased dramatically to 34% of the vote. Clearly, both candidates need to offer more detailed plans to resolve the student debt crisis. And, to help current borrowers who are struggling.

Clinton has laid out plans for federal student loan refinancing, forgiveness, and steps to make the next generation of college students debt free. Trump has spoken about federal student loan reform, and even privatization of the student loan industry.

The student loan debt crisis is a complex and costly is issue. We believe that both candidate need to outline the exact plans including financials. Hopefully, the first debate will give candidates the opportunity to add color to their student loan strategy. You can’t fix a $1.3 trillion problem overnight, and you can’t fix the issue with only headlines.

See more of LendEDU’s Research

The margin of error was +-3%. Respondent ages ranged from 18 – 31 years old. The poll was conducted evenly to the entire United States. 43% of respondents were female, and 57% of the respondents were male. We will be conducting an additional political poll at the end of September.