A new poll shows that a large number, but not a majority, of Republicans, would leave the GOP and join a Donald Trump-founded political party.
According to the USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 46% of Republicans would leave the GOP compared to 27% that said they wouldn’t. The poll surveyed 1,000 Republicans last week based on the 2020 polls.
“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,” said Brandon Keidl, a 27-year-old small business owner in Milwaukee. “But then you have establishment Republicans who just agree with establishment Democrats and everything, and they don’t ever push back.”
However, some believe that a third party isn’t necessary because Trump will just end up taking over the Republican party as he did in 2016. “I think he’s just going to, you know, take over the Republican Party, much as he did in 2016,” Francis Zovko, a 63-year-old Republican said. “They all kind of thought he was a big joke, and by the end, they weren’t laughing anymore.”
The survey also showed that half of Republicans think that the GOP should show more loyalty to Trump, even if it means losing the support of people in the GOP. However, 19% of people surveyed said that the party should distance itself from Trump.