Pew survey: Voters gave Clinton better grades for conduct than Trump

Hillary Clinton may have lost the election but U.S. voters gave her a better “grade” for how she conducted herself during the campaign than Donald Trump, although neither one got particularly high marks.

A Pew Research poll released Monday found that while half of voters are happy that Donald Trump is now the president-elect — an almost equal share (48%) are unhappy. Voters weren’t thrilled by his conduct during the campaign, the survey showed.

One-third of those surveyed gave Trump an A or B for his campaign conduct, 19% gave him a C, 15% had him at D. The largest share (35%) failed him. Trump’s “grades” are the lowest for any president-elect in 28 years.

Meanwhile, 43% gave Clinton an A or B.

For comparison, in 2012 57% of those surveyed gave President Obama an A or a B and in 2008 75% did. In 2012, 44% gave Republican nominee Mitt Romney a top grade.

But it isn’t just the candidates who voters were unhappy with. Just 22% of those surveyed gave the press a top grade, while 38% failed the media. Twenty-one percent of voters gave pollsters an A or a B, while 30% gave Fs.

Voters are also extremely partisan in their split over whether they believe Trump will do a good job. Nearly all (97%) of Trump voters expect his first term to be successful, while 76% of Clinton supporters expect it to be unsuccessful.

And 65% of Democrats would rather their party leaders stand up to Trump on issues they care about, even if it means that less gets done in Washington. On the contrary, just 32% would rather leaders work with Trump even if it means Democrats are disappointed on issues they care about.

In 2008 59% of Republicans wanted leaders to work with Obama while 36% wanted them to stand up.

The survey was conducted Nov. 10-14 and included 1,254 voters. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4%.