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Three out of 10 GOP delegates have reservations about Trump
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- See also: GOP delegates applaud Trump's VP pick
 Date: November 8, 2016 |
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July 19, 2016
By Jim Barnes
This is one of multiple surveys Ballotpedia will be publishing during the conventions. Stay tuned for additional results in the coming days ahead.
A Ballotpedia survey of Republican National Convention delegates found that nearly 30 percent of them have reservations about their presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Among non-Trump delegates, half say they have doubts about the presumptive nominee. And more than one in 10 of the delegates say that while they plan to support other GOP candidates in the fall campaign, they will not be backing Trump.
Ballotpedia surveyed Republican delegates on Sunday and Monday (before the contentious floor squabble over party rules) and asked them which of four options most closely reflected their sentiment toward their nominee.
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 that Trump delegate count at 1,542. The 259 delegates who responded to this Ballotpedia survey also resembled the regional distribution of all actual convention delegates.
Ballotpedia’s GOP delegate survey also showed a contrast between the feelings of Trump delegates—those who are either bound to vote for Trump on the first ballot or say they intend to vote for the New York real estate mogul on the first ballot—and those who are not or will not. While more than half of the Trump delegates say they’re enthusiastically supporting him, and only a handful of bound Trump delegates say they have reservations about him, among non-Trump delegates, the number who say they are going to focus on electing other GOP candidates and not Trump is roughly one-quarter.
“I am an original supporter and just crazy about this guy,” said Gloria Lee Snover, a delegate from Pennsylvania who is enthusiastically backing Trump. She added that she was “losing my love for W,” a reference to former President George W. Bush, whose brother Jeb opposed Trump for the GOP nomination and who says he doesn’t intend to vote for Trump.
“I was the first statewide elected official to endorse Trump,” boasted Bubba McDonald, a delegate who is enthusiastically backing the presumptive GOP nominee and is also a member of Georgia’s Public Service Commission. “Mr. Trump is the best hope we have to represent us as the next President,” said California delegate K.V. Kumar, a Trump enthusiast.
“I've moved in Trump's direction, a change that has not been lightly considered,” said Pennsylvania delegate Gordon Denlinger, who is supporting Trump as the nominee of the party.
“A core reality of a two party nation is that each election will be a binary choice, and as Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt politician since the days of Tammany Hall it will be very easy to support and vote for Mr. Trump,” said Wisconsin delegate Brian Westrate, who is also chairman of the state’s 3rd Congressional District Republican Party.
But others remained more skeptical. “The presumptive nominee does not represent the Republican Party or its members,” said a delegate from a southern delegation who chose to remain anonymous.
“I'm enthusiastically opposing Hillary Clinton,” said a delegate from a western state, who said she was supporting Trump as the nominee, but reluctantly. Another delegate from the West said he was supporting Trump reluctantly, but added, “This is right now, I could change if he keeps opening his mouth.”
“He looks like he'll be the nominee; I'll decide by November what I'm going to do,” said a delegate from a state in the East who declined to answer the question, as did 16 others besides the 259 delegates who did respond. “Just so Hillary is defeated.”
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
