Americans don’t see much to like about many possible Republican candidates for President: majorities in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll say they are NOT likely to support former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, businessman Donald Trump or former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, if they became the Republican nominee.
About a third of Republicans say the same about those three potential candidates.
How likely would you be to vote for the following people if they were the Republican nominee for president in 2012? Among All Respondents
| Likely | Not likely | Not sure | |
|---|---|---|---|
Sarah Palin | 27% | 62% | 11% |
Mitt Romney | 30% | 46% | 23% |
Mike Huckabee | 30% | 50% | 21% |
Donald Trump | 30% | 57% | 13% |
Newt Gingrich | 22% | 57% | 20% |
Ron Paul | 25% | 43% | 23% |
Michele Bachmann | 19% | 53% | 28% |
Other Republican possibilities fare nearly as poorly with Americans.
There are some characteristics that appear to be driving people away from Trump. Americans are far less likely to say they would vote for a successful businessman who has not held public office than to support someone both successful in business and who has held office. 44% say they’d be likely to vote for the former; 74% would vote for the latter.
Being an ordained minister (as Mike Huckabee is) or hosting a television show (which both Huckabee and Palin have done) doesn’t seem to help perceptions. Fewer than half would be likely to vote for someone who had done either, even if they have held public office.
A majority of both Republicans and Democrats would support someone who had served in Congress for 20 years and became a party leader there, a description that fits Newt Gingrich. But many of them say they would not support Gingrich himself.
One interesting finding: Tea Party identifiers say they’d be likely to support Gingrich if he were the Republican nominee 63% to 29%, giving him more support than Republicans in general do (55% of Republicans would be likely to support Gingrich, but 35% would not). However, Tea Partiers feel more negative about supporting someone who has Gingrich’s experience in Congress: 54% of them say they’d support someone who had been a leader in Congress, 38% would not.
Full datasets for Economist/YouGov polls can be found here.
Photo source: flickr ( DonkeyHotey )
