Fox News Poll: Voters Feeling Optimistic

It was a good year for a majority of voters -- and they’re feeling optimistic about next year too, according to the latest Fox News Poll.

President Obama’s last year in office was a dramatically better year for voters than his first. Some 53% say 2016 was a good year for them. While that’s down a touch from 56% last year, it’s a big increase from 34% who felt positive at the end of 2009.

For 35%, this was a bad year. Fifty percent felt that way about 2009.

In addition, over half of voters have a sunny outlook on how things are going in the United States today. Fifty-two percent are optimistic, while 44% feel pessimistic.

There are big differences in outlook by political leanings. Democrats say 2016 was a good year for them (64%), but are pessimistic about the way things are going in the country (57%).

For Republicans, two-thirds feel optimistic about the direction of the country (67%), but they give 2016 mixed reviews (43% good year vs. 41% bad year).

Independents are also mostly divided on how things went for their family this year (46% good vs. 41% bad), while over half, 53%, are optimistic about how things are going in the country.

The poll finds 70% of Donald Trump voters are optimistic about how things are going. Just 39% of those who supported Hillary Clinton feel the same.

Pollpourri

Half of voters (50%) will be at least somewhat proud to have Donald Trump as their president. Yet nearly as many, 47%, won’t be.

For Barack Obama, 66% are proud to have him as their country’s leader and 33% aren’t.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,034 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from December 11-13, 2016. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.