(Week of 3/31/2012) Governor Romney may be the Republican frontrunner, but he has an enthusiasm gap to make up: only 11% of GOP voters in this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll would be excited if Romney became the party’s nominee.
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Although more GOP voters express satisfaction with a Romney nomination, there are substantial pockets of disagreement. Only 4% would be angry if Romney were their party’s nominee, but a third would be dissatisfied. Dissatisfied Republican voters appear across all political and demographic segments. 27% of GOP voters still want another candidate to enter the contest.
Although Romney has made some inroads with Republican voters (though 19% say they dislike him as a person), he still has image problems. A third of GOP voters have an unfavorable view of him. Most (60%) don’t view him as a conservative.
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And a majority continues to think he more often says what people want to hear, not what we really believes.
![](https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/images/saysromney.format-webp.webp)
In contrast, eight in ten GOP voters see Romney’s chief remaining competitor, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, as a conservative, and 67% think Santorum says what he really believes.
Economist/YouGov poll archives can be found here
Photo source: Press Association