How do the LGBT votes stack up as we approach the 40 days and 40 nights before the United States Presidential Election?
A large majority of registered LGBT voters support Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, according to results of two weeks of the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll.
Seventy-two percent of registered LGBT voters support Clinton, compared to 20 percent who support Trump.
On the campaign trail, Trump has touted himself as the better candidate to fight for LGBT rights, but his decision to pick Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running-mate was seen by some as contradictory to his LGBT-friendly claims.
When Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are added to the match-up question, Clinton still maintained the lead among registered LGBT voters with 63 percent support. Trump, on the other hand, had 15 percent support. Johnson was not far behind with 13 percent, followed by 8 percent support for Stein. – nbcnews.com
Are LGBT numbers important? Are we a big enough minority in the U.S. to make a difference? We would love to think that every vote and voice counts, but it may be very true in this case.
In past elections, LGBT voters have played an important role. According to results from the 2012 NBC News Exit Polls, 5 percent of voters identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual** and 76 percent voted for Barack Obama. Voters who did not identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual were split—49 percent voted for Obama and 49 percent voted for Romney.
The LGBT community has historically supported the Democratic Party, and the tracking poll found that 70 percent of registered LGBT voters were Democrats and Democratic-leaners. More LGBT registered voters identified as Republicans and Republican-leaners (18 percent) than as Independents (13 percent).
The LGBT community was an important group for Obama's re-election four years ago and will be a key group for the Democratic Party again in November.
*The NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll included two questions across two weeks – September 5 through September 18: 1) Do you consider yourself to be: Heterosexual or straight, Homosexual, Bisexual, Prefer not to answer 2) Do you consider yourself to be transgender? Yes, No
**The national exit poll numbers are among those who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual and do not include transgender voters. – nbcnews.com
It goes without saying, your vote is important and it does count. But it looks like in this election as im previous ones, the LGBT vote will count more for the Democrats than any other party.