GOP nominee Donald Trump may be trailing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in national polls of likely voters, but among one segment of the electorate, he leads by a wide margin: insurance and financial service professionals.
That is true, at least, on the narrow question regarding which of the leading party candidates is best positioned to steer the U.S. economy to long-term growth. In a September 2016 survey conducted by the Woodbridge Group of Companies of registered investment advisors and insurance sales professionals, a whopping 8 in 10 respondents (83 percent) flag the real estate magnate and TV celebrity as the best candidate for “fostering long-term growth and building a healthy U.S. economy.”
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Just 6 percent of advisors express more confidence in Hillary Clinton’s ability to grow the economy. The remainder of the advisors polled said neither candidate would benefit the country’s economic needs.
“Regardless of the election’s outcome, financial advisors who responded to our survey made themselves abundantly clear as to who they believe is best-suited to set the country on a path to economic vitality,” Woodbridge President and CEO Bob Shapiro said in a press statement. “Throughout the survey, we see the same economic themes repeated over and over again: job one for the new Administration has to be economic fixes.”
The Woodbridge poll contrasts with broader public opinion surveys about the candidates’ economic positions and skills. For example, WalletHub reported last month that Americans favor Hillary Clinton’s plan to tax the wealthy over Donald Trump’s tax plan by more than a two-to-one margin (68 percent vs. 32 percent).
The margin was similarly wide on the question of corporate taxes: More than 7 in 10 (71 percent) percent of respondents favor Clinton’s plan, as compared with 28.53 percent for Trump’s, when the name of the candidate proposing the plan is disclosed to the participant.
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