Pollster John McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates is warning Republicans, based on a latest omnibus poll, that unless they start keeping campaign promises to Trump voters, the president’s base may not turn out to vote for them in the 2018 midterm elections.
Trump supporters are a “floor on which Republicans stand” or fall, he says in this exclusive interview. And, contrary to media polls, which he demonstrates in a memo skew results towards Democrats and appear inclined to “sacrifice their credibility to promote liberal anti-Trump bias,” Trump’s support amongst his own voters remains high.
The video interview was conducted for The Daily Caller News Foundation before President Trump cut new large deals with Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
Surprisingly, McLaughlin finds that nearly one in seven Republicans believe it’s time for Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to be replaced.
Two weeks prior to McLaughlin’s latest omnibus poll taken before Labor Day, Rasmussen Reports showed a third of Republicans wanted Ryan and McConnell out.
“It’s a warning shot,” he says. Voters are tiring of inaction on campaign promises while Republicans control the House, Senate and White House to get things done, he says, — repealing Obamacare, get the economy growing, keep us safe and secure, or holding the line on wasteful spending.
He points out the contrast between the failed effort to repeal Obamacare with how the Senate handled Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination. When Republicans get the right things done, excite the base, unify the Republicans and put pressure on the Democrats and the middle, these surprisingly negative polls should improve.
Getting more specific, the poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted online between Aug. 24 and Aug. 28, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent. It found voters were less likely to support their congressman if they:
- Voted to increase the debt limit without new constraints on future spending (69 percent of Trump voters)
- Failed to stop Obama’s social experimentation with the military and transgenders (69 percent of Trump voters)
- Refused to repeal Obamacare (68 percent of Trump voters)
- Voted to bail out health insurance companies without repealing Obamacare (67 percent of Trump voters)
- Did not support Trump’s more careful vetting of immigrants (67 percent of Trump voters)
- Continue government spending without building the wall, and with Democrat priorities funded like Planned Parenthood (66 percent of Trump voters)
- Failed to pursue investigations against former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (64 percent of Trump voters).
Republicans also need to stand up for peaceful free speech, McLaughlin says, based on the poll’s findings. They should condemn the violence of antifa and the censoring of conservative and mainstream organizations by social media providers.
McLaughlin was a 2016 Trump pollster who, contrary to most pollsters, predicted Trump’s presidential victory. He also assisted in the victory of Bibi Netanyahu, and battled the Obama campaign operatives deployed to defeat the Israeli prime minister.
A portion of McLaughlin’s monthly omnibus poll discussed in this video included polling for a coalition of conservative groups and leaders, including Ginni Thomas. See the underlying polling results here, here and here.
Videographer Sean Moody is credited with the video work for this piece.
Mrs. Thomas does not necessarily support or endorse the products, services or positions promoted in any advertisement contained herein, and does not have control over or receive compensation from any advertiser.
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