Gallup polls Republicans on Trump, Dems on primaries

NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller sits down for his weekly conversation with Gallup’s Frank Newport to talk about trends in American opinion.

New data show that Republicans favor Donald Trump despite being well aware of his problems in terms of temperament, and also that he is not the kind of conservative as rival Ted Cruz. What really differentiates Trump supporters is their view that he would improve U.S. standing in the world. He also gets high credit for his perceived ability to fix the economy.

Some may be worried about Trump putting his foot in his mouth if he became president, but in 1980, when Ronald Reagan was running for president, Americans were very worried about that exact same thing regarding Reagan.

However, if Trump does become the GOP nominee, he is expected to have major problems with ethnic groups. His image is very negative among all national adults, but skews extremely negative among African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Some 77 percent of Hispanics have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, compared with only 30 percent who view Cruz unfavorably, and 21 percent who see Marco Rubio unfavorably.

So far, we have seen lower Democratic turnout in actual voting in the primaries and caucuses; lower Democratic enthusiasm about the election; less thought given to the election by Democrats; and fewer Democrats saying that the candidates have come up with good ideas for solving the most important problems facing the nation.