The message from military spouses who took a recent Military.com election survey is clear: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is the leading choice on Nov. 8.
Almost 2,300 individuals who identified themselves as military spouses or family members took the survey, which ran from Oct. 24 through Oct. 31. The survey was shared on social media, on Military.com and through Military.com newsletters.
Of the military spouses who took the survey, almost 68 percent said they plan to vote for Trump, while about 22 percent identified Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton as their choice. Libertarian Gary Johnson took a distant third with nearly 4 percent.
Almost 17,000 people took the Military.com survey, the vast majority of whom self-identified as military veterans or retirees. Among all respondents, almost 70 percent said they plan to vote for Trump. If broken down to active-duty respondents only, about 65 percent said they are planning to vote for Trump.
Read more about the overall survey results on Military.com.
A previous survey conducted in September showed Johnson and Trump virtually tied among active-duty members with about 37 percent of the vote each.
When asked about issues, military spouses ranked "terrorism" as the most important, with "foreign policy" and "veterans' issues" as a close second and third.
On the issues, almost 40 percent of the military spouses who responded said they support President Barack Obama's decision to leave 8,400 troops in Afghanistan in 2017, while about 43 percent said they support his decision to deploy troops to Iraq and Syria.
But many other spouses are undecided on those issues. About 35 percent said they are undecided on the Afghanistan issue, while 28 percent said the same about Iraq and Syria.
An overwhelming number of spouses, about 78 and 76 percent respectively, said they support Trump's plans to grow the military and privatize VA health care.
