A straw poll taken during the recent 2020 Western Conservative Summit (WCS) showed 98% of participants approve of Donald J. Trump as a candidate for president of the United States in the upcoming election.
The Centennial Institute, Colorado Christian University’s public policy think tank, hosts the Western Conservative Summit, which has grown to be the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the Western United States. This year’s summit was held virtually due to COVID-19 and drew a record online participation of more than 300,000 viewers across several platforms.
Attendees were invited to participate in the summit’s Presidential Straw Poll, which employed an approval method that allowed participants to vote for multiple responses to each question. The method allows responses to more accurately reflect attendees’ opinions.
“An approval voting method means we’ll get more honest feedback,” said Frank Atwood, an official sponsor of the WCS Presidential Straw Poll. “This type of poll avoids spoilers and the ‘wasted vote’ phenomenon because voters aren’t pressured to abandon their nuanced preferences in favor of the most electable candidate.”
Question one asked attendees to vote for all the presidential candidates they approve of. In order of most approval to least, the 753 respondents approved of the Trump/Pence ticket by 98.5%, the American Constitution party at 1.7%, the Libertarian Party with 1.5% approval, the Democratic Biden/Harris ticket with 1.1% approval and the Green Party candidates at 0.4%.
Question two asked summit attendees which of 10 issues are most important to them as they consider presidential candidates. 756 respondents selected multiple issues. From most important to least, they said these issues would affect their vote for president: Supreme Court appointments (90%), the economy (90%), violent crime (72.3%), abortion (69.4%), gun policy (67.2%), foreign policy (64%), health care (49.9%), the COVID-19 pandemic (25.9%), race and ethnic inequality (15.8%) and climate change (6.2%).
The main component of the summit this year was the debut of a one-hour documentary, America, America, God Shed His Grace on Thee, produced by the institute and conservative actor Nick Searcy. The film explores how Scripture and Judeo-Christian values influenced the founding of the United States, features the late Herman Cain’s final interview and commentary by conservative luminaries such as Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, Sen. Ted Cruz, Ambassador Andrew Young, Sec. Ben Carson, Alveda King and others. {eoa}
