Newswise — A new University of Delaware Center for Political Communication survey finds that 46% of registered voters would vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and 42% would vote for Republican candidate Donald Trump, if the presidential election were being held today. The nationally representative telephone survey, conducted on July 21-24, 2016, interviewed 1,000 adult U.S. respondents by landline and cell phone, including 818 registered voters.
Almost half of all respondents (47%) say they feel “disgusted” about the Republican Party’s nomination of Trump. This is the most common feeling about Trump’s nomination, followed by “afraid” (42%), “hopeful” (40%), “proud” (31%), “angry” (31%), and “enthusiastic” (30%). Among Republicans, 82% feel hopeful and 69% feel proud, versus only 14% who feel disgusted or afraid. Meanwhile, 69% of Democrats feel disgusted and 65% feel afraid, whereas only 14% feel hopeful and 7% feel proud.
Most Trump and Clinton supporters would be very disappointed if their candidate lost. Among those saying they would vote for Trump, 70% would very disappointed and another 17% would be somewhat disappointed. Among Clinton voters, 67% would be very disappointed and 19% would be somewhat disappointed.
Among all those surveyed, 59% have an unfavorable opinion of Trump (with 43% saying very unfavorable and 16% saying mostly unfavorable), compared to 37% who have a favorable opinion (18% very/19% mostly). Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence fares better, with 40% viewing him favorably (19% very/21% mostly) and 37% viewing him unfavorably (21% very/16% mostly).
On the Democratic side, 51% have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton (36% very/15% mostly) versus 43% who view her favorably (19% very/24% mostly). Of the respondents interviewed on July 23-24 (N = 506), 37% have a favorable opinion of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine (12% very/25% mostly) and 31% view him unfavorably (18% very/13% mostly).
Opinions split sharply across party lines for all four candidates, particularly Trump and Clinton. Among Republicans, 80% view Trump favorably and only 18% view him unfavorably. In contrast, 93% of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, with only 6% holding a favorable opinion. Of the Democrats surveyed, 9% view Trump favorably, whereas 87% view him unfavorably. Meanwhile, 83% of Democrats view Clinton favorably versus 12% who view her unfavorably. Independents rate Pence, Clinton, and (especially) Trump more negatively than positively, but split evenly on Kaine.
Around a quarter of respondents (26%) say they followed the Republican National Convention very closely and 34% followed it somewhat closely, with 19% following it not very closely and 20% not following it at all.
Of the respondents following the convention (845), almost half (46%) say they heard something about it on Facebook. Only 16% say they heard something about the convention from Twitter.
Almost two-thirds of those surveyed (64%) could correctly identify Cleveland as the city hosting the Republican National Convention. Around four in ten (41%) knew that Governor John Kasich did not attend the convention. Only around a quarter (24%) could correctly identify actor Scott Baio as a convention speaker.
RSS