ASI Bumper Sticker Poll Predicts Mayor Pete Wins Iowa Caucuses

Poll based on Iowans’ swag preferences

TREVOSE, PA – January 28, 2020 – Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg will win the February 3 Iowa caucuses, according to the results of a poll of bumper sticker preferences conducted by the Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI).

 

ASI recently asked a sampling of Iowans which candidate’s bumper sticker they’d be most willing to put on their car if they received a sticker from each of the leading candidates. Just over a quarter – 26.1% – chose Buttigieg’s. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (20.9%) and former Vice President Joe Biden (16.2%) were the second and third choices.

“ASI has polled voters over the course of the last two presidential election seasons, choosing bumper stickers as a unique indicator of support for a candidate because it’s an iconic election promotional product that signals a very personal preference,” said Nathaniel Kucsma, ASI’s executive director of research and corporate marketing. “No one would put a bumper sticker on their car unless they had strong, in-your-face feelings for a presidential candidate.”

In ASI’s poll, Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, IN, led the pack among both male and female Iowans, according to Kucsma. He was much farther ahead among women, however. Also of note: Women over 65 preferred Buttigieg, while men over 65 preferred Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The only category where Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren led was among women, ages 45 to 54, though Warren’s advantage among that demographic was very narrow, Kucsma said.

Bumper stickers, yard signs and related swag remain an important part of political campaigning. In the run-up to the caucuses and state primaries, demand for such items will continue to rise.

Iowans are the first to voice support for a Democratic presidential nominee. But the Iowa caucuses differ from state primaries, where voters cast a vote behind a curtain. Instead, Iowa Democrats gather in small groups to declare their support for candidates publicly. According to Politico, the Democratic state party then calculates how many “state delegate equivalents” each candidate has won at each caucus location and adds them up. The candidate with the most “state delegate equivalents” wins the most delegates to the Democratic National Convention and wins the Iowa caucuses.

After all 50 states and territories hold their caucuses and primaries, the Democratic candidate with the most delegates will go on to challenge President Donald Trump in November.

ASI’s Iowa bumper sticker survey was conducted from Jan. 15 to 18 via the Google Consumer Survey network by ASI’s market research team. Only the candidates who were among the top six in the polls that closed Jan. 15 were included in the poll. Respondents who wrote in Trump were excluded from the results, since the survey was designed to determine the leading Democratic candidate. A total of 464 valid responses were counted in the closed-ended, single-question poll