The first presidential debate of 2016 has passed, and it remains difficult to forecast what Nov. 8 holds. As of the morning of Sept. 26, however, a MeriTalk survey of federal IT professionals indicated that a shift is inevitable regardless of who wins.
When asked if they would consider leaving government or retiring if a specific candidate was elected, 28 percent of respondents said they would consider their options outside the public sector if Clinton wins, while 24 percent said the same would happen if Trump wins.
This comes from a survey where 52 percent of respondents favored Clinton, while 32 said they would vote for Trump (with 16 percent saying they were not voting). Of the Democrat vote polled (which was 38 percent of respondents), 87 percent said they were voting for Clinton, with 8 percent leaning Trump and 5 percent not voting. Of the Republican vote, 65 percent said they were voting for Trump, 23 percent for Clinton, and 12 percent said they were not voting.
Asked who would do more to innovate IT in the government, 55 percent said Clinton and 45 percent Trump. As for what those surveyed considered the most important IT priority for the next president, 67 percent said cybersecurity, followed by modernization (19 percent), tech spending/acquisition (10 percent), cloud computing (3 percent) and partnering with Silicon Valley (1 percent).
The survey demographics break down as 27 percent non-management IT, 21 percent IT directors-supervisors, 52 percent other; 64 percent male, 36 percent female; 40 percent Republican, 38 percent Democrat; 70 percent white, 30 percent other; 63 percent civilian agencies, 27 percent DoD-intelligence, 10 percent other.
