Dictionary

double hater en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Attested from at least 2017 (see quotations below).

Meanings

1. (US, informal) A person who did not favor either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party candidate in the 2016, 2020, or 2024 United States presidential election.
   • Trump's analysts nicknamed this group "double haters." They comprised about 3% to 5% of the 15 million voters the campaign believed were persuadable. [2020 April 24, Joshua Green, “New Poll Shows a Hidden Danger for Trump: Double Haters”, in Bloomberg (subscription required):
   • Donald Trump’s data analysts gave them a nickname: “double haters.” These were people who disliked both candidates but traditionally showed up at the polls to vote. 2017, Joshua Green, Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising, page 231:
   • Without Clinton on the ballot this year, Trump no longer wins what Republicans in 2016 wryly dubbed the "double hater" vote — a small but important slice of the public that dislikes both presidential candidates, but grudgingly settled for Trump as the lesser evil. 2020 May 4, Keith Boag, “Strong third-party candidate for U.S. president rattles nervous anti-Trumpers”, in CBC News, archived from the original on 04 May 2020:
   • There's the anti-Trump forces on the right and the anti-Biden forces on the left, but there's also the anti-everyones, the so-called double haters, the people who really dislike both their choices and say they don't want to vote for either candidate. We had double haters in 2020, and they tended to ultimately break for Biden. 2024 March 17, Carlos Lozado, Katherine Miller, Michelle Cottle, Lydia Polgreen, quoting Carlos Lozado, “The Double-Hater Election”, in New York Times, page SR 11:
   • Double haters make up about 15% of the electorate, according to a poll this month by USA TODAY/Suffolk University, giving them significant sway in deciding the outcome of the November election. 2024 March 23, Joey Garrison, “Meet the surging ‘double haters’ who could decide whether Biden or Trump wins the election”, in USA Today:

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