Voter Perception Quotes

The media cannot come separate [Donald] Trump from his supporters. Only Trump can do that. They're trying, they're gonna keep trying because they think they can. They did it with [George W.]Bush. They did it with [Mitt] Romney. They did it with [John] McCain. They did it with Bob Dole.

The Democrats have made the low-information voters think they care about 'em. And the worst thing you can do is invest in the Democrat Party, the worst thing, in terms of life potential.

When Democrats kind of cavalierly attack the religious right or go after Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, our candidates have sent the signal to a lot of religious people, 'Well, I guess they are not interested in me.' And I think this includes a lot of people who would fit very naturally within the Democratic Party.

Candidates who went into an election with negatives higher than 30 or 40 points just inevitably lost.... Drive up the opposition's negatives.

When I left the secretary of state office, I had a 69% approval rating. Once I start running for office and all the incoming you know is battering away, people are going to say, "Hey, wait a minute - what's that mean, what's that mean?" I get all of that, but I don't think we do any service to our country or the voters if we descend into the kind of insult fest that he seems to relish.

No one is confused about what a Democrat is in a presidential election. In every election other than a presidential election, our voters are confused. We've given out too many different messages.

Party leaders aren't responsible for every candidate's gaffe.

I'd rather be underestimated by the polltakers than by the voters.

Unfortunately, every American citizen takes the same position... that we don’t like negative advertisements. But they work! And, as you see, many a candidate has prevailed by tearing down the reputation of an opponent in a more advantageous position.

Look, 85% percent of Democrats think the economy's fine. What does that tell you about these people?

There's no question that many factors contribute to voters' perceptions about debates and who wins and who loses.

In George W. Bush's case, the public paid far too little attention to the role of religion in his thinking. Many voters failed to appreciate that while Bush's religious beliefs may be moderate Methodist ones, he was someone who relied on his faith immoderately, as an alternative to rational understanding of complex issues.

Memo to White House: Calling voters stupid is not a winning strategy.

Even though voters overwhelmingly dislike negative ads, they do influence voters' opinions about a candidate.

People may like what third-party candidates say, because often they are the only ones saying anything, but they usually won't vote for someone who doesn't have a chance. Since third-party candidates are not in the news, they are considered to be not really in the race; and since they are not in the race, this justifies treating them as if they are not news.

Voters definitely believe Washington is corrupt - but most think it's bipartisan.

In my own professional career, I've tried to establish my own identity and my own track record so that if I were to entertain a run for office, there would be my own track record for voters to look at.

Hillary Clinton's unfavorable ratings at an all-time high at 60 percent. That Donald Trump is trusted more than she by the American voter. There's a very important attribute that goes to empathy and compassion in connective tissue with voters. The question of who cares more about people like you? That's a measurement that President Barack Obama beat Governor Mitt Romney on, like, 82 to 15. Clinton and Trump were tied on that. That's a remarkable figure when you think about how Democrats normally have an advantage in that way.

Voters are not great at reading issues. They are great at reading character.

What will get you elected through a tough election cycle and what will get you kicked out when you should have won is whether your constituents feel like their Member of Congress respects them or not.

It's hard running as an independent. I wouldn't have won the Senate election if I hadn't been governor. I had credibility. The hard part is getting voters to the point where they think it's thinkable and not a waste of time.

Voters don't have to love him, Romney advisers say, but they will respect him.

[People] didn't vote for me because they thought I was a racist and if you look at my campaign literature it is not much different than a lot of Republican literature and some conservative Democrats in the South.

Hillary Clinton was urging voters to make history, but a lot of voters, particularly women, had trouble with her history. And she was portraying herself as a feminist, as a glass ceiling breaker, but, in fact, in the eyes of many women, especially women closer to Hillary Clinton's own age, she had gotten where she was primarily on her husband's coattails.