New Poll Shows Significant Percentage of Republicans Turned-off by Trump’s Post-Election Messaging

New Poll Shows Significant Percentage of Republicans Turned-off by Trump’s Post-Election Messaging

About one-in-three Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that Donald Trump has been “delivering the wrong message since the election" and Joe Biden has been “delivering the right one,” according to a recently released Pew Research Poll.  And in a percentage that is likely to increase as Trump continues to refuse to concede, spreading increasingly farfetched and thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories of voting machines being tampered with to change Trump votes to Biden votes, about 4-in-10 Republicans say, “allegations of voter fraud do not deserve more attention.”

While it is certainly the case that President Trump’s unprecedented and fact-free effort to overturn the will of the people and his tardy cooperation on the transition has presented President-elect Biden with some unique challenges, the contrast between Trump’s fanciful temper tantrums and Biden’s measured tone and steady assembling of his administration has provided the president-elect with a major opportunity to expand his support in the American public.  As Pew reports, over-all, 64% of American voters think that Joe Biden has been “delivering completely or mostly the right message since the election,” as opposed to only 34% of American voters who think that Donald Trump has been “delivering completely or mostly delivering the right message since the election.”

Not surprisingly, the Republicans who disapprove of Trump’s post-election messaging and approve of Biden’s, are mainly moderates and liberals.  A little more than half of moderate and liberal Republicans believe Trump is delivering the wrong message as oppose to only 1-in-5 conservative Republicans.  Younger and more educated Republicans are also more likely to disapprove, according to Pew: “Republicans with at least a college degree are more likely than those with less education to say Trump’s message has been wrong (39% vs. 30% of those with a high school education or less). Similarly, 37% of Republicans ages 18 to 49 say Trump is delivering the wrong message, compared with 27% of Republicans ages 50 and older.”  Additionally, nearly half of Latino Republicans disapprove of Trump’s post-election messaging.

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Republicans who get their news and information from a broad variety of sources and are not as reliant on Fox News and talk radio are much more likely to believe that Donald Trump is delivering the wrong message since the election.   Nearly 6-in-10 Republicans who don’t rely on Fox News or talk radio as major sources of information, and more than 4 in 10 who rely on other major sources, along with Fox and talk radio, disapprove of Trump’s post-election messaging. This contrasts with the very low level of disapproval-- only about 1-in-10-- from Republicans who get their news and information exclusively from “Fox News and/or talk radio.”

Biden won suburban and moderate voters comfortably in the November election, peeling off a chunk of Republican leaning independents.  As the Pew Poll documents, Trump’s actions since the election provide the opportunity for President-elect Biden to build on this foundation, expanding his support in the nation and achieving the broad popularity that can fuel victories in Congress on his legislative priorities.  There is also a warning here for elected Republicans.   Continuing to back Donald Trump’s increasingly desperate, futile and fundamentally undemocratic efforts to overturn the will of the people and cling to power is not only wrong; it may very well  end up exacting a political price.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.