Almost half of Republicans would join Trump party: poll

by Dominick Mastrangelo - 02/21/21 12:47 PM ET

Nearly half of Republicans say they would abandon the party as it is currently structured and join a new party if former President Trump was its leader, according to a new poll released Sunday.

A Suffolk University-USA Today poll found that 46 percent of Republicans said they would abandon the GOP and join the Trump party if the former president decided to create one. Only 27 percent said they would stay with the GOP, with the remainder indicating they would be undecided.

“We feel like Republicans don’t fight enough for us, and we all see Donald Trump fighting for us as hard as he can, every single day,” a Republican and small-business owner from Milwaukee told the newspaper. “But then you have establishment Republicans who just agree with establishment Democrats and everything, and they don’t ever push back.”

McConnell did not vote to convict Trump, citing the unconstitutionality of convicting a president who no longer holds office. But after the Senate’s acquittal vote, McConnell said Trump was “morally” responsible for the Jan. 6 riot of his supporters at the Capitol and alluded to potential criminal prosecution of the former president for alleged crimes he may have committed in office.

“He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell said on the Senate floor at the time.

“Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again,” Trump said in response to McConnell’s remarks. “He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First. We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership.”

Trump’s top advisers have said they are focused on helping elect conservatives to Congress.

“Our goal is to win back the House and Senate,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, told The Hill this week. “We’ll be looking at open seats, Democratic-held seats, and maybe there are places where we look for upgrades and more MAGA-friendly voices. I have no idea why McConnell decided to lash out at the president this way, but when you do, you can expect to get hit back.”

The Suffolk University-USA Today poll was taken among 1,000 Trump voters, identified from 2020 polls, between Feb. 15 and Feb. 19. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Tags Donald Trump Donald Trump Mitch McConnell Mitch McConnell Republican Party