A new poll shows most Republicans appear to regret nominating Donald Trump
Sad!
A majority of Republicans now want a do-over.
A new poll by the Huffington Post and YouGov shows that 54 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters now say that Donald Trump was not the best choice for the GOP nomination, up from 44 percent in June. Meanwhile, the number of Republican voters who say Trump was the best option fell from 44 to 35 percent.
In comparison, 53 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters say Hillary Clinton was the Democrats' best option, compared to 56 percent in June. And 37 percent say she was not the best option, up from the previous 32 percent.
The numbers show Republicans are much more likely to disapprove of their candidate for president. Democrats do voice some discontent, but it’s not nearly at the Republicans’ level.
The findings likely reflect Trump’s abysmal performance in the polls. According to RealClearPolitics’ poll average, Clinton currently holds a 5-point lead over Trump — a very big margin in presidential polling. It wasn’t supposed to be this way: Vox’s political science model found that the election favored Republicans after eight years of a Democrat in the White House, yet Trump is polling about 4.9 points behind where he should be as of Tuesday.
Since winning the nomination, Trump has been mired in disaster after political disaster. He’s been repeatedly accused of racism, including by members of his own party when he said a judge should recuse himself from a Trump University case due to his Mexican heritage. He suggested that Megyn Kelly asked him tough questions at a debate because she was on her period. He insulted the Muslim family of a fallen US soldier after the soldier’s parents criticized his proposal to ban Muslims from entering America. He’s been caught lying repeatedly, including about whether he opposed the war in Iraq. (He didn’t.) (Vox’s Ezra Klein has a good breakdown of all of these controversies.)
The political crises just don’t seem to stop with Trump. And Republicans appear to be taking notice.