Establishment Republicans had hoped that Mr Trump had a ceiling of about 35% in the Republican nomination race but in Tuesday’s Nevada caucus he won 46% of the vote. Unless Nevada is somehow very unusual, Mr Trump’s ceiling may be a rising one! After earlier victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina the prospect of the controversial billionaire winning the Republican nomination is growing ever more real, even probable – and so is the possibility of a President Donald J Trump if he can then win November’s general election.
So we asked YouGov’s First Verdict panel how they viewed the prospect:
Nearly 49% were “terrified” at the thought.
12% were “anxious” but didn’t think he could do “too much damage”.
16% thought fear of a Trump presidency was “exaggerated” and it would turn out “ok”.
16% were “excited” at the prospect.
Earlier this week we found that 22% of First Verdict panelists now thought Mr Trump might get to the White House. That was up from 13% at the start of the month. (See bottom of this post on Jeb Bush). We’ll ask the question again soon and see if it is rising as fast as Mr Trump’s “ceiling”.
For more about Portrait of America and the methodology behind First Verdict, click here.For the complete Portrait of America catalog, click here.
