Press Releases

Gore pulls support from moderates, women, Latinos

The Associated Press
Wednesday November 08, 2000

LOS ANGELES — Vice President Al Gore won support from self-described moderates and women, helping him take California’s 54 electorate votes. 

Hispanic voters favored Gore by a 2-1 margin, according to an exit poll. Those voters have traditionally favored Democrats in California, but Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who enjoys support from Latinos in his home state targeted that group in California. 

Bush got support from California voters who said they haven’t experienced the benefits of the nation’s booming economy. 

Nearly two-thirds of voters who said their financial situation was the same or worse than it was four years ago voted for Bush. 

But despite Bush’s focus on education during his campaign, voters who named education as their main concern leaned toward Gore. 

The exit poll was conducted Tuesday in 50 randomly selected precincts statewide by Voter News Service, a cooperative of The Associated Press and television networks. Other respondents were interviewed in the past week by telephone, to include people who voted early or by absentee ballot. The sampling error margin is plus or minus 3 percentage points for all voters, higher for subgroups. 

Results were weighted so that respondents interviewed by telephone represented 25 percent of the sample, the estimated size of the pre-Election Day vote. The phone poll was conducted Oct. 27-Nov. 5 by the Field Institute for VNS. 

Older voters leaned toward Gore slightly. Those 65 and older, who account for one-quarter of voters, supported the vice president by a narrow margin. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader pulled about 14 percent of independent voters, who account for one in five California voters. The balance of the independents was split evenly between Bush and Gore. 

Gore enjoyed the support of voters in all income groups below $100,000, while those in the top bracket favored Bush. The economy, jobs and taxes were the top concerns of voters heading to the polls. The poll also found that half of voters had an unfavorable impression of President Bill Clinton, but more than two-thirds said they approved of his job.