The Anatomy of Donald Trump’s South Carolina Supporters: Fed Up And Fearful

It began Friday morning when reports surfaced that that at a private fundraising event Cruz questioned the judgment and electability of Trump and fellow GOP candidate Ben Carson.

That compares with 53 percent of all other Republican-leaning voters who say they would be “dissatisfied” or “upset” if Trump becomes the party’s standard bearer in 2016.

Iowa’s Dale Witmer, 90, a registered Republican and Word War II veteran who likes Trump and Texas Sen. “The people who know Ted Cruz best despise him, including his former college roommate”, ex-conservative-turned-Clinton-fundraiser David Brock said last week.

Asked about choosing Trump or Cruz, 2008 nominee Sen.

“Think about it. You don’t know what you’ve got here”.

By their own description, Trump supporters are frustrated and angry about the direction of the nation.

In a hypothetical general election matchup, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton would beat businessman Donald Trump, according to NBC-Wall Street Journal poll results released Monday.

“I didn’t do this for polls so I don’t even care what the polls say”, Trump said in an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union With Jake Tapper”.

Trump remains unbowed. “One thing that attracts people to Trump is that he’ll tell everyone to go to hell”, said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. But Cruz’s steady rise means that even if Trump were taken out by a well-financed negative campaign, they might have to deal with a stronger Cruz, who has more political polish than the more improvisational Trump.

The Republican presidential candidates are gearing up for their final debate of 2015 on Tuesday night, as billionaire Donald Trump keeps his No. 1 standing in national polls but is increasingly under threat from Sen. While it’s true that Cruz’s Senate colleagues nearly unanimously consider him a grandstanding, self-serving mercenary, he has devoted a huge amount of effort to making himself likable to early-state voters.

Looking at the demographic makeup of Trump supporters, a more precise picture takes shape. The Clintons attended Trump’s wedding.

They haven’t publicly said so, but many mainstream Republicans fear a Cruz nomination as much as they fear Trump or Carson at the top of the ticket.

The AP notes of Trump and Carson: “State filing deadlines would give the two Republicans until about March to launch independent or third-party campaigns, experts said”.

“Look, if I let you borrow my shoes from my house, when you bring them back, I’m not going to bring them back in until I reassess and see what I’ve got”, she said.

Mr. Cruz, like Mr. Trump, is willing to ride the whirlwind of racial hatred and bitter nativism whipped up by recent Islamic terrorism.

Sixty-five percent said they “strongly” or “somewhat” agree that Mr. Trump has the temperament needed to carry out the role of president of the United States.