Republican Voters Want GOP Leaders to Unite Behind Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on Super Tuesday primary election night at the White and Gold Ballroom at The Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, March 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on Super Tuesday primary election night at the White and Gold Ballroom at The Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, March 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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A new CBS News/New York Times poll, finds that now that Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, 80 percent of Republican voters think GOP leaders should support Trump even if they disagree with him on important issues. That includes 62 percent of voters that did not back Trump in the primaries.

According to this CBS News article about the new poll, more than 60 percent think the GOP needs to be united in order for Trump to win the November election. Most Republican voters (64 percent) think Trump can unite the party, but those who did not support Trump in the primaries are far less confident in Trump’s ability to bring the party together. Eighty-four percent of Republicans say their party is divided. But while most are hopeful about the future of the Republican Party, four in 10 are discouraged:

Primary voters who backed Trump and those who opposed him view the party’s future differently. Most Trump backers (66 percent) are hopeful about it, while most non-Trump supporters are discouraged (66 percent).

The new poll, like others released this week, shows Trump improving in head to head match-ups against the Democrats’ candidates. Hillary Clinton now holds a six-point lead over Trump, down from 10 points a month ago. Trump trails Bernie Sanders by 13 points, down from 17 points.

Contentious primary contests on both sides haven’t turned off many primary voters from voting for their party’s candidate in a likely November match-up between Trump and Clinton:

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Seventy-one percent of Republican voters who did not support Trump in the primaries would still vote for him against Clinton. On the Democratic side, 72 percent of Sanders supporters would vote for Clinton against Donald Trump.

Nevertheless, the poll does finds diminished enthusiasm about voting. Forty percent of registered voters nationwide are less enthusiastic than usual about voting this year. That is higher than at any point during the 2012 election. However, Republicans are more enthusiastic than Democrats and independents, and those who support Trump in the primaries are more enthusiastic — 56 percent of Trump supporters say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting this year. And most voters are not content with the options of Clinton and Trump — 46 percent of registered voters would be satisfied with that match-up, 52 percent want more choices:

Most Republicans (55 percent) are satisfied, while most Democrats (52 percent) and independents (60 percent) are not. Eight in 10 Sanders supporters would like other choices.

The poll was conducted May 13-17, 2016 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

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