Survey of Iowa Republicans Finds Majority of Voters Would Re-elect Trump

Leah Barkoukis | December 17, 2018 6:30 AM

If the 2020 presidential election were held today, a majority of Republican voters would re-elect President Trump, according to a newly released survey.

The CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll found that 67 percent of Republicans in the state would vote for the president, while 19 percent of GOP voters would consider another candidate. Ten percent of Republicans in Iowa said they would definitely choose someone else.

Interestingly, the survey also found that a majority of Republican voters, 63 percent, would welcome the GOP bringing in challengers to Trump at the Iowa caucuses in 2020. Twenty-six percent of Republican voters did not believe other GOP candidates should be encouraged to challenge the president.

The share in favor of welcoming challengers is higher among Iowa Republicans with college degrees (72%) than among those without degrees (56%). It's also higher among women (66%) than men (60%), and among younger Republicans (67% among those under age 45) than older ones (60% age 45 and up feel that way). And those who consider themselves "very conservative" are far less apt to want the party to welcome challengers (47%) than those who are less conservative or moderate. Those differences correspond with stronger support for Trump in some cases -- gender and ideology, notably -- but not all.
The overall welcoming posture doesn't mean the state's GOP is particularly welcoming to those who have been critical of Trump, however.
Iowa Republicans are more likely to have positive views of those political figures who at times have been warmer to Trump than of those who are routinely critical. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and soon-to-be Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Republicans who were one-time critics of the President but have been publicly supportive of him at other times, all have broadly favorable ratings in the poll. Those who have been more overtly and consistently critical, including outgoing Sens. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker and outgoing Ohio Gov. John Kasich, are less positively viewed. (CNN)