Badger Exits: Voters Sour On Trade, A Third Of GOP Voters Would Bolt If Trump or Cruz Becomes The Nominee

According to the preliminary exit polls from the Badger State rumble that’s about to commence, more than half of GOP voters and a plurality of Democratic voters feel that trade kills jobs. Dissatisfaction and anger remain a visible characteristic with GOP primary voters in Wisconsin, though CNN’s David Chalian noted that this figure is at its lowest for any primary held thus far for the GOP. He did add that this number could change.

According to NBC’s exits, 56 percent of voters feel that the nomination should go to the person with the most delegates, not to someone (42 percent) who manages to clinch a majority of them:

While 56 percent said the nomination should go to the candidate with the most votes, 42 percent said the delegates should be able to choose anyone they prefer at July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland. More than eight-in-ten of those who said they supported Donald Trump (83 percent) said they preferred the nomination go to the person with the most votes, while just 42 percent of those backing another candidate said the same.

Republican primary voters were more likely to describe themselves as dissatisfied than angry, 53 percent to 32 percent, according to the same exit poll. In another question, 51 percent said they felt betrayed by the Republican establishment.

The news organization also added that a third of Republican voters in Wisconsin would either stay home, look at a third party option, or vote for Clinton if either Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz became the 2016 nominee.

When asked what they would do if Cruz were the GOP nominee in November, only 65 percent of Wisconsin Republicans said they'd vote for him. The remainder instead would vote for a third-party candidate (18 percent), vote for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton (7 percent) or not vote at all (6 percent).

[…]

The numbers got slightly worse for the Republican Party when voters were asked to consider Trump as the GOP nominee. Just 61 percent said they'd vote for the brash businessman, with the rest defecting to a third party (16 percent) or to Clinton (10 percent)—or simply staying home (9 percent).

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UPDATE: Via Ed Morrissey at our sister site Hot Air, Trump bested Cruz with independents 43/38, but Cruz won Republicans 53/34. Wisconsin is an open primary. David Chalian at CNN noted prior to the polls closing that the voter breakdown was 65/29/9 Republican, Independent, and Democratic respectively. Katie mentioned that Cruz is ahead by 11 points in the early exits.

UPDATE II: Hillary got killed on honesty...again