Gallup: Romney Grabs Third of Union Vote

GOP standard bearer Mitt Romney is siphoning off a significant number of union supporters from President Barack Obama. While Obama gets 57 percent of union votes, Romney manages to capture 35 percent, a new Gallup poll shows.

Of those registered voters interviewed April 11-June 5 in Gallup's daily tracking poll, 12 percent reported being union members. Non-union workers interviewed break for Romney 48 to 44 percent.

“State government union workers are slightly more likely than the average government union worker to support Obama,” Gallup reported. “Still, about three in 10 state workers who are union members and are registered to vote support Romney, underscoring the finding that union members are modestly diverse in their presidential preferences.”

Gallup noted that in the past year much of the focus on unions has been on government workers but the survey found Obama’s level of support among union members was about the same in the private and public sector.

“All in all, union workers provide a substantial bloc of support for Obama's re-election efforts, although their impact on the presidential race will be limited by their size — just about 12 percent of employed voters are union members — and the fact that a sizable minority support Romney,” Gallup concluded. “Still, in crucial battleground states this fall, the vote and efforts of even small groups may end up making a difference.”