There’s at least a bit of irony that a person who was born a millionaire appeals to working class Republicans the best while dropping to fourth in his party for those with higher education. That’s what the most recent CNN/ORC Poll reveals.
For those with a high school diploma or lower education, Trump’s popularity as a straight-talker and his name recognition as a reality television star give him a huge boost in polling. His policies and proposed solutions, which are often more important than rhetoric to Republicans with college degrees who are looking at the issues themselves, yielded a much lower score.
Ted Cruz leads the way among educated Republicans, followed by Ben Carson and Marco Rubio. Unfortunately for them, the majority of people who answer telephone polls do not represent those who have higher education. Trump’s supporters do.
GOP thinkers had been searching for way to appeal to voters w/o college degree. Trump (46) seems to have found it: https://t.co/FmILGTG7Y0
— Byron York (@ByronYork) December 4, 2015
“He reflects their disgust with the political establishment,” said NY Times columnist David Brooks. “He gives them the pleasurable sensation that somebody can come to Washington, kick some tail and shake things up.”
The biggest problem for Republicans who see a Trump nomination as possible is that he has the least appeal among Independents and Democrats. Head-to-head with Hillary Clinton among all voters, he suffers the worst defeat in the latest Quiinipiac Poll. In the same poll, he tallied the highest percentage of “candidates you would definitely not support for the Republican nomination” with 26% followed by Jeb Bush at 21%. Cruz and Rubio were the only major candidates in the single digits in this rating.
Republican angst towards their leaders is clearly high and driving the rise of candidates like Trump, Carson, and Cruz. Will that angst translate into votes when the primaries and caucuses arrive?