83% of GOP Voters Intend to Vote Republican No Matter Who’s The Nominee

Mitt Romney declared in Monday night’s debate that any one of the current Republican candidates would make a better president than Barack Obama, and GOP voters overwhelmingly agree with him. More emphatically, they intend to vote Republican even if their first choice doesn’t win the nomination.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 77% of Likely Republican Primary Voters think that every one of the party’s presidential candidates would do a better job than the current occupant of the White House. Just 14% disagree, with 10% more undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Eighty-three percent (83%) of primary voters say they will vote for the Republican candidate even if their favorite does not capture the party’s presidential nomination. Seven percent (7%) will vote for Obama if that happens, while five percent (5%) will go for a third-party candidate.

Perhaps surprisingly, Tea Party members are more committed to supporting the GOP candidate than other Republicans. Among GOP primary voters who are Tea Party members, 92% will vote for the Republican candidate even if their favorite falls short of the nomination.  Among non-Tea Party members, only 78% are that committed to the Republican candidate.

Ninety-three percent (93%) of Tea Party members think any of the GOP candidates would make a better president than Obama, a view shared by just 66% of non-members.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely GOP Primary Voters was conducted on June 14, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. Likely GOP Primary Voters include both Republicans and unaffiliated voters likely to vote in a GOP Primary. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.