Farleigh Dickenson University has recently conducted a national presidential poll. The poll included two questioning sections on voter’s preferences. The first poll included the options of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), as well as other, don’t know, and refuse to answer. The Second Section included the options of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jim Hedges (Prohibition), Monica Moorehead (Workers World), as well as other, don’t know, and refuse to answer. In the second section the results were 47% for Hillary Clinton, 35% for Donald Trump, 4% for Jim Hedges, 3% for Monica Moorehead, 3% for other, 7% for don’t know, and 2% for refused.
This is a degree of good news for the Prohibition Party. As far as known, this is the first time in the 2016 election, where the Prohibition Party Candidate, Jim Hedges, has been featured as an option in a national poll. Even if it was for a comparative study, it is still significant. Jim Hedges was able to get enough attention that they thought to make him one of the choices. In this matchup, he was able to get a nice portion of preferential selection. 4% percent is a decent showing in a four way poll. In the first section of polling had gotten 3%.
It is a good sign for the Prohibition Party. It indicates that there may be a significant element of voters who would be potentially willing to vote for a Prohibition Party Candidate, if they are included among the options and have a comparatively strong candidate. For those who are hoping for Hedges and the Party to do well, this can be encouraging.
Now what does this mean for their prospects for the Prohibition Party? This does feed into other relatively good news for us. The Prohibition Party has been making efforts to attract more new members and to use the 2016 election as a catalyst for rejuvenating the party. Significant efforts were made in ten states to get on the ballot. Ballot Access has been in three states (up from 1 in 2012), and came close to succeeding in four others. We were successful in getting on the ballot in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Colorado. We nearly succeeded in getting on the ballot in New Jersey, Iowa, Tennessee, and Louisiana. These were prevented by a few unfortunate circumstances. In California, Hedges tried to get ballot access by running in the American Independent Party primary. He got 3,223 (10.8% of total) votes, and carried Lakeside County. These trends indicate that there will likely be a significant increase in votes in 2016 from 2012. Now this won’t be 4% of the national total, but it could very well multiply the vote total. The combination of these positive signs might also bode well for the party in future elections. If the party is able to keep building on its recruitment, issue advocacy, and party building efforts it very well be able to get on ballot in several states in 2020. It may inspire more members to seek local elected offices and build credibility for seeking to encourage towns to establish local dry laws. Now this is speculation, but time will tell how accurate they are. At the very least, the Prohibition will still have a future for keeping temperance issues debated, and there are some positive signs about the possibility for some to be receptive to the prohibitionist message.
