Poll: One-third of GOP voters want someone other than Trump for 2020

Nearly a third of Republicans say they would prefer a candidate other than Donald Trump to represent the party in the 2020 presidential election, new data shows.

A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute finds that 31 percent of Republicans would prefer a Republican candidate other than Trump, while 63 percent said they would prefer Trump to be the candidate.

According to the poll, those who identified as “strong” Republican were more likely to approve of Trump’s job performance so far, with 91 percent saying they approve. And Republicans overall said they had more confidence in Trump than in the party itself. Fifty-five percent said the GOP is moving the country in the right direction, and 67 percent said the same for Trump’s policies.

{mosads}Among Republican respondents, 40 percent consider themselves to be “Always Trump,” and supported him in the 2016 GOP primary and would support him in 2020. Twenty-three percent said they supported him in 2016, and are now leaning away from supporting him in the next election.

Eighteen percent are “Never Trump,” not supporting him in 2016 and not planning to support him in 2020, and about the same amount, 19 percent, did not support him in 2016 but will support him for 2020.

Republicans who said they supported Trump in 2016 but are now leaning away from him are more likely to be nonwhite than any of the other voting groups. Only 59 percent of “leaning away” Republicans are white, while 85 percent of the “Always Trump” respondents are non-Hispanic white.

The polling firm surveyed Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. The survey was conducted between Oct. 18-30 among a random sample of 2,019 adults.