Voters Reject Post-Election Unity, Say Violence More Likely If Trump Wins

Regardless of the winner, few voters expect us all to get along after Election Day. A Trump win is expected to trigger a more violent reaction than a Biden victory.

Just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters think Trump supporters and Biden supporters are likely to find common ground on many of the major issues facing the nation, and that includes only eight percent (8%) who say it’s Very Likely. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 68% consider common ground between the two sides unlikely, with 31% who say it’s Not At All Likely. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

These views are shared across the partisan spectrum. Just nine percent (9%) of Republicans, 10% of Democrats and five percent (5%) of voters not affiliated with either major party think Trump supporters and Biden supporters are Very Likely to find common ground on many major issues.

If President Trump wins reelection, 67% of all voters think violent protests are likely to follow, with 36% who say they are Very Likely.

If Democrat Joe Biden wins, by comparison, 52% say violent protests are likely, including 28% who believe they are Very Likely to occur.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted November 1-2, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. 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.

Trump voters were much more confident than Biden supporters that the winner of the presidential race was likely to be known on Election Day. Among all voters, Biden was seen as more likely to admit he’s lost than Trump.

The older the voter, the less likely they are to expect that the two sides can find much common ground, but even for those under 40, a sizable majority view that as unlikely.

Only 24% of whites see common ground as likely, compared to 32% of blacks and 34% of other minority voters. Voters in all three groups agree that Trump’s reelection is more likely to trigger violent protests than a Biden win.

Democrats see violent protests as almost equally likely regardless of the winner. Republicans and unaffiliated voters are more likely to expect violent protests from those unhappy with a Trump victory.

Those who consider common ground unlikely are much more likely to expect violence from a Trump win. Those who think the two sides are likely to agree on many issues rate both sides as also almost equally likely to engage in violent protest.

Forty-one percent (41%) of all voters said the country is headed in the right direction just before the election. That’s the highest finding since March when the coronavirus lockdown kicked in. By comparison, this number ran in the mid- to upper 20s for much of 2016, President Obama's last full year in office.

Democrats strongly agree with Biden that America is entering “a dark winter” because of the coronavirus, but other voters aren’t nearly as gloomy. Trump is more upbeat, promising a COVID-19 vaccine soon, and most voters say they’re likely to get one.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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