Four months before the election, Democracy Corps started conducting deep qualitative and quantitative research with the base voters who identify with the Republican Party. The findings paint a picture very different from the one that assumes the GOP is Trump’s party. That realization reveals big opportunities for progressives in the remaining 90 days before the election. Democracy Corps will be releasing further reports on how to take advantage of these opportunities.
The conventional wisdom on President Donald Trump and the GOP is just wrong. Trump does indeed get a rousing response from Evangelical conservatives and Tea Party supporters, and they do emerge more determined to vote in 2018. But they form just half of the today’s GOP. Catholic conservatives, secular conservatives, and moderates make up 53 percent of the GOP base, and they are much less passionate about Trump and less enthusiastic about voting in November.
In the final 90 days before the midterms, Donald Trump’s base strategy will be in full force, but this research reveals that his messaging and persona divide Republicans and open the door for opportunistic progressives to appeal to the less enthusiastic GOP, particularly the women and millennials, on issues like women’s choice, Medicaid and health care, and the environment.
