Almost half of Republicans in new poll would not vote for Trump if he’s convicted of felony

Nearly half of Republicans in a survey released Thursday said they would not vote for former President Trump if he were convicted of a felony.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 45 percent of Republicans said they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted, while 35 percent said they would still cast their ballot for the former president. Another 20 percent said they were unsure of how they would vote.

Trump was indicted for a third time Tuesday on federal charges related to his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. The former president pleaded not guilty to the four-count indictment — which accused him of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., among other charges — in Washington on Thursday.

He was previously indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in Manhattan in March over a 2016 hush money payment. In June, Trump was also charged over his alleged mishandling of classified documents and efforts to block the government from recovering them.

Just over half of the Republicans in Thursday’s poll — 53 percent — said they believe the former president behaved appropriately on Jan. 6, 2021, and 52 percent said he behaved appropriately in repeatedly claiming the election was fraudulent.

Sixty-one percent of Republicans also said Trump exercised bad judgment on Jan. 6 but is not criminally liable for the attack on the Capitol, and three-quarters of Republicans said the charges against Trump are politically motivated.

The former president remains the clear front-runner in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination despite his indictments, with 47 percent of Republicans in the poll saying they would support him in the primary.

His closest competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, sits at 13 percent, followed by former Vice President Mike Pence with 8 percent and conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy with 7 percent, according to the poll.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted Aug. 2-3 with 1,005 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.