Seventy-eight percent of Republican respondents to a recent Quinnipiac University national poll released Tuesday said they want former President Donald Trump to run again in 2024, while a majority of responding American’s say they don’t want to see Trump run again for the presidency.
“While a majority of Americans say, ‘been there, done that’ about Trump, and half feel he has damaged the underpinnings of democracy, support for the former President within the GOP has grown,” said Tim Malloy, a polling analyst at Quinnipiac University.
Almost half, 49 percent, of respondents, said Trump had a primary negative impact while president, with 43 percent believing he had a mainly positive impact while in office.
Over half, 51 percent, believe Donald Trump has been undermining democracy since the 2020 presidential election, with 39 percent believing he is protecting democracy.
Some 52 percent of respondents said the country is worse today than it was a year ago, according to the poll, and the same percent have an unfavorable opinion on the Trump presidency.
When asked about Trump’s role in the Jan. 6. insurrection, 42 percent of respondents said Trump bears a lot of responsibility for the storming of the U.S Capitol, with 15 percent saying the former president bears some responsibility, and 27 percent believing he bears no responsibility for the attack.
Job approval for President Joe Biden didn’t fare much better, according to the poll, with 50 percent of respondents having an unfavorable opinion of the current U.S president. Previous polling done in May showed a higher number of respondents with favorable opinions of Biden, according to the poll.
The most urgent issues among respondents include the economy, COVID-19, and immigration.
“What worries Republicans most does not top the list of Democratic concerns, and vice versa,” Malloy said. “But for the country as a whole, the state of the economy edges out the pandemic and issues at the border as the matter of greatest concern.”
Some 46 percent of registered voters who responded to the poll said they support building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, with 49 percent opposing it. According to Quinnipiac, this is the lowest level of opposition to building a border wall since November 2016.
“While it is a tossup, there is considerably less opposition to construction of a border wall under the Biden administration than there was when former President Trump made it a strident rallying cry,” Mallory said.
The poll surveyed 1,342 adults nationwide between Oct. 15 and 18, 2021, with a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.
