Nearly 70 percent of GOP delegates self-identify as very conservative
Ballotpedia's scope changes periodically, and this article type is no longer actively created or maintained. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.
 Date: November 8, 2016 |
Winner: Donald Trump (R) Hillary Clinton (D) • Jill Stein (G) • Gary Johnson (L) • Vice presidential candidates |
Important dates • Nominating process • Ballotpedia's 2016 Battleground Poll • Polls • Debates • Presidential election by state • Ratings and scorecards |
2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016 Have you subscribed yet?
Join the hundreds of thousands of readers trusting Ballotpedia to keep them up to date with the latest political news. Sign up for the Daily Brew.
|
This article covering the 2016 presidential election was written outside the scope of Ballotpedia's encyclopedic coverage and does not fall under our neutrality policy or style guidelines. It is preserved as it was originally written. For our encyclopedic coverage of the 2016 election, click here.
July 20, 2016
By Jim Barnes
This is one of multiple surveys Ballotpedia will be publishing during the conventions. Stay tuned for additional results in the days ahead.
While last night formalized Donald Trump’s nomination for president, earlier this week Republicans solidified the party platform, which included strong stances on social issues and immigration.
A number of factors went into passing a strongly conservative platform at the 2016 Republican National Convention: social conservatives had a relatively large number of seats on the platform drafting committee and the presumptive nominee, Trump, had little interest in tangling with them over issues that aren’t going to turn the election, like transgender access to public restrooms. But the Republican manifesto is also an accurate reflection of the make-up of the delegates seated on the floor of the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, according to Ballotpedia’s survey.
Ballotpedia surveyed Republican delegates on Sunday and Monday and asked them to describe their political philosophy: very conservative, somewhat conservative, moderate, or liberal—the same scale that was used on the television networks’ 2016 Republican presidential primary exit polls. More than two-thirds of the GOP delegates, 69 percent, described themselves as “very conservative.” Only a handful described themselves as moderates, and none said they were liberal.
The results were weighted to the proportion of Trump and non-Trump delegates as tallied by CNN on the Tuesday morning prior to the roll call vote that night. CNN placed the Trump delegate count at that time at 1,542. The 277 delegates who responded to this Ballotpedia survey also resembled the regional distribution of all actual convention delegates.
It is not unusual for GOP convention delegates to be more conservative than the party rank-and-file, just as it is typical for Democratic convention delegates to be more liberal than regular Democratic voters. But even for a convention, the rightward lurch of this gathering is noteworthy. Indeed, no exit poll this year found that level of strong conservatism among Republican presidential primary voters. The highest was in Mississippi, where 47 percent of the GOP voters described themselves as “very conservative.”
Not surprisingly, the conservative delegates at this convention were pleased with a party platform that many observers have described as the most conservative GOP manifesto in decades. Nearly half of the 285 delegates who responded to a Ballotpedia survey question on the platform said they were “very satisfied” with the statement of party principles and goals.
“I like how they have strengthened the language,” said Thomas Tuck, a delegate from Montana, who described himself as very conservative. “There are always specific tweaks I would make if I could wave a magic wand, but over all the party of Lincoln is staying true to our conservative roots and the legacy left by great men like President [Ronald] Reagan,” said Wisconsin delegate Brian Westrate, chairman of the state’s 3rd Congressional District Republican Party, who also identified as very conservative.
Colorado delegate Anita Stapleton, who described herself as very conservative, said that she had not been able to read through the platform, but added that she had been “reassured that the platform is [the] strongest on conservative values yet.”
But some of the delegates were concerned over the platform’s hard-line stance on values themes. “From what I've heard, the social issues are little too hard hitting for me,” said a delegate from a Midwestern state who described herself as “somewhat conservative” and chose to remain anonymous. Even a western state delegate who identified himself as “very conservative” said, “Do not like the emphasis on social planks, particularly anti-LGBTQ.”
James A. Barnes is a senior writer at Ballotpedia who has covered every Democratic and Republican national convention since 1984. He is in Cleveland and Philadelphia for Ballotpedia in July. Contact media@ballotpedia.org with interview inquiries.
See also
- GOP delegates applaud Trump's VP pick
- Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
- Mike Pence vice presidential campaign, 2016
- Republican National Convention, 2016
