Given a choice between four presidential candidates with equal skills and temperament, 31% would prefer a Republican who supported policies like those of President Trump. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that 20% would prefer a Democrat who supported policies similar to Senator Bernie Sanders, 19% favor a more traditional Democrat, and 17% a more traditional Republican,
It’s important to remember that the question focused on the policy preference assuming that the candidates had equal skills and temperament. As a result, it cannot be assumed that someone who supports policies like those of Trump or Sanders would automatically support Trump or Sanders as a candidate.
We have been asking this question regularly since last October. Despite everything that has happened since, these attitudes have remained broadly consistent. The current results are similar to those reported last July and April. On the Republican side, the number preferring Trump-like policies is consistently two to three times as large as the number favoring traditional GOP policies. On the other hand, the two wings of the Democratic party are always just about evenly divided.
However, the current numbers show 48% of voters favoring one of the Republican leaning options while 39% prefer a Democratic leaning set of policies. Prior to the 2020 Election, the parties were evenly divided on this measure.
The shift away from the Democrats is consistent with the decline in the president’s approval ratings and the growing GOP edge on the Generic Congressional Ballot.
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Note: Neither Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com, nor RMG Research, Inc. have any affiliation with Rasmussen Reports. While Scott Rasmussen founded that firm, he left more than seven years ago and has had no involvement since that time.
Question:
Suppose you had a choice between four presidential candidates. All four had equal skills and temperament. Would you prefer a Republican who supported policies like President Trump, a more traditional Republican, a Democrat who supported policies similar to Senator Bernie Sanders, or a more traditional Democrat?
31% A Republican supporting Trump’s policies
17% A more traditional Republican
20% A Democrat supporting Sanders’ policies
19% A more traditional Democrat
13% Not sure
Methodology
The survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on December 21-22, 2021. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population.
