Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson receives 11 percent support in a hypothetical three-way race against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, according to the latest Monmouth University poll.
In the three-way matchup Hillary leads with 42 percent, Trump follows with 34 percent, and Johnson trails the two with 11 percent in the Monmouth poll released Thursday.
Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University polling institute, said, “a vigorous third party campaign is a very real possibility this year, but it is not yet clear what the impact could be.
He added, “including Johnson’s name in our polling seems to be more of a placeholder for voters who are not particularly thrilled with either major party choice right now.” (RELATED: Gary Johnson: ‘If This Isn’t An Opportunity For The Libertarian Nominee…There Will Never Be An Opportunity’)
Johnson is currently seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. He was the party’s candidate for president in 2012 and received nearly one percent of the popular vote in the general election.
One issue facing Johnson is name recognition — 76 percent of voters didn’t know him well enough to form an opinion. Of the ones who knew him, nine percent view him favorable and 15 percent unfavorably.
The former New Mexico governor performed best in red states, getting 15 percent of support there. He also received 16 percent of support from independents, and 13 percent from Republicans.
The poll of 1,008 registered voters was done over the phone and has a margin of error of 3.4 percent.