{"id":4436,"date":"2015-10-26T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/republicans-view-trump-as-most-electable\/"},"modified":"2015-10-26T08:00:14","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T15:00:14","slug":"republicans-view-trump-as-most-electable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/republicans-view-trump-as-most-electable\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans view Trump as most electable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WASHINGTON \u2014<\/strong> Republican voters view Donald Trump as their strongest general election candidate, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that highlights the sharp contrast between the party\u2019s voters and its top professionals regarding the billionaire businessman\u2019s ultimate political strength.<\/p>\n<p>Seven in 10 Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters say Trump could win in November 2016 if he is nominated, and that\u2019s the most who say so of any candidate. By comparison, 6 in 10 say the same for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who, like Trump, has tapped into the powerful wave of antiestablishment anger defining the early phases of the 2016 contest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the lifelong establishment politicians on both sides that rub me the wrong way,\u201d said registered Republican Joe Selig, a 60-year-old carpenter from Vallejo, California. \u201cI think Trump is more electable. He\u2019s strong. We need strength these days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump and Carson are considered among the least electable general election candidates by the Republican Party\u2019s professionals, those who are in the business of helping candidates run campaigns and win elections.<\/p>\n<p>Experienced political strategists note that winning a general election and winning the Republican nomination are often very different tasks. The GOP\u2019s most conservative voters \u2014 a group that is older and whiter than the nation as a whole \u2014 wield extraordinary influence in picking the nominee. Independents, moderate voters and minorities are far more important in general elections that draw many more people to the polls.<\/p>\n<p>While Trump and Carson are popular in primary election polls, both have used divisive rhetoric in recent months that alienated some minorities. Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals during his announcement speech; while Carson said he would not support a Muslim presidential candidate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRepublicans think (Democrat) Hillary (Rodham Clinton) is weaker than she is. They are wrong,\u201d said GOP operative Katie Packer, who was deputy campaign manager for 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney. \u201cThey think we don\u2019t need to win more women or more Hispanics to win. They\u2019re wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has embraced a welcoming tone with Hispanics, tops the field of experienced political leaders on the question of electability, running about even with Carson and slightly behind Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Six in 10 Republicans say Bush could win the general election and 54 percent say the same about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. There\u2019s a drop-off among the rest of the GOP\u2019s 2016 crowded class. None of the other candidates is viewed as electable in a general election by more than half of Republican voters.<\/p>\n<p>Carson and Trump are the candidates most likely to receive positive ratings from Republican voters, with 65 percent saying they have a favorable opinion of Carson and 58 percent saying the same of Trump. Republicans are somewhat less excited about Bush, with 48 percent giving him a favorable rating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he weren\u2019t a Bush, I wouldn\u2019t even know his name,\u201d said Republican Leslie Millican, a 34-year-old housewife from Magnolia, Arkansas. \u201cI like the other Bushes. Something about (Jeb Bush) \u2014 he ain\u2019t grown on me yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump and Bush have the highest negative ratings within their own party: 37 percent of Republican voters say they have an unfavorable opinion of Bush and 36 percent say the same of Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Their negatives are even more pronounced among the broader electorate. The AP-GfK poll found Trump is viewed unfavorably by 57 percent of those surveyed, the highest negatives of any Republican candidate. Bush is next with unfavorable ratings from 48 percent of all respondents.<\/p>\n<p>The poll also found a sharp difference between the political parties over experience.<\/p>\n<p>By an overwhelming 77 percent to 22 percent margin, Republican registered voters and leaners say they prefer an outsider candidate who will change how things are done, rather than someone with experience in Washington who can get things done. They prefer someone with private sector leadership experience over experience holding elected office, 76 percent to 22 percent.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Trump, Carson and Fiorina are the only Republican candidates who have never held elective office. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, is a former first lady, secretary of state and senator.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps that helps explain why Democrats prefer experience over outsider status, 67 percent to 32 percent, and experience in office over private sector experience 66 percent to 33 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Republican strategist John Feehery says Trump is considered electable now only because he hasn\u2019t yet been the subject of a multimillion dollar negative ad campaign, which will happen should he maintain his lead in the polls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, he serves a valuable purpose as a front-runner, especially for the Democrats,\u201d Feehery said. \u201cThey would love him to be our nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>The AP-GfK Poll of 1,027 adults was conducted online October 15 to October 19, using a sample drawn from GfK\u2019s probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.<\/p>\n<p>Respondents were first selected randomly using telephone or mail survey methods, and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn\u2019t otherwise have access to the Internet were provided access at no cost to them.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Online:<\/p>\n<p>Poll: http:\/\/ap-gfkpoll.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Republican voters view Donald Trump as their strongest general election candidate, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that highlights the sharp contrast between the party\u2019s voters and its top professionals regarding the billionaire businessman\u2019s ultimate political strength. Seven in 10 Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters say Trump could win in November 2016 if [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4436"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}