Republican primary voters are hardcore Fox News watchers and Trump supporters, but new research finds that Republicans who don’t watch Fox support Trump less.
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The New York Times reported on some recent New York Times/Siena College polling:
One hundred percent of the Republicans in our poll who said they got their news from Fox News or other conservative sources said they intended to support Mr. Trump in the general election. This stands in contrast to Republicans whose main media sources are outlets like CNN and major news organizations: Seventy-nine percent of them plan to vote for Mr. Trump, and 13 percent said they planned to vote for President Biden.
And across many measures, mainstream media Republicans are less supportive of Mr. Trump. They are 20 percentage points less likely than conservative media Republicans to say they are enthusiastic about Mr. Trump as the party’s nominee and more than 30 percentage points less likely to say Mr. Trump’s policies have helped them personally.
The poll also found that the number of Republicans who get their news from non-Fox/conservative media is about the same as those who get their news from Fox and conservative media. Both groups made up about 30% each of the survey.
Donald Trump is heavily dependent on Fox News and conservative media, but the Republican general electorate is much different and less pro-Trump than the primary electorate. Thirteen percent of the non-Fox News-watching Republicans surveyed said that they would be voting for President Biden.
By running his media campaign through Fox News/Newsmax/conservative media, Trump isn’t reaching any new voters. Trump is talking to people who are already going to vote for him.
The problem could be offset if Trump had a big war chest to spend on advertising to reach more voters, but the Trump campaign is struggling to raise money, and President Biden currently holds a nearly 4 to 1 fundraising advantage.
If Trump continues to depend on Fox News, it would be surprising if his results are the same or worse for him in November.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
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