72% of Republicans See Trump As Model for Party’s Future

When the Republican Party reorganizes itself next year, GOP voters strongly believe President Trump should remain the role model, but most think the party should look for a new face to be its next presidential candidate.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 72% of Likely Republican Voters think their party should be more like Trump than like the average GOP member of Congress. Twenty-four percent (24%) see the average Republican in Congress as a better model. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Most Republicans have consistently identified more with Trump than the average GOP member of Congress in surveys for the last several years.

Just over half (52%) of Republicans think their party should look for a fresh face to run for president in 2024. Thirty-three percent (33%) disagree and say the GOP should promote a candidate who has already run in the past. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure.

Sixty percent (60%) of GOP voters favored a new face in a survey six years ago, and outsider Trump ultimately defeated the party establishment favorites to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted December 21-22, 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.

Looking back at the presidential election, Trump voters overwhelmingly say they voted for the president, while a sizable number of Biden supporters admit they were voting against Trump rather than for the former vice president.

Among all likely voters, 40% think the GOP should be more like Trump, while 45% say it should be more like the average Republican member of Congress. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) believe Republicans should look for a fresh face to run for president in 2024. Twenty-five percent (25%) say they should promote a candidate who has already run in the past. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats think the Republican Party should be more like the average GOP member of Congress, a view shared by a plurality (48%) of voters not affiliated with either major party. Sixty-three percent (63%) of both Democrats and unaffiliated voters say Republicans should look for a fresh face to run in 2024.

Many anti-Trumpers insisted throughout Trump’s four years in office that he was not their president, and a surprisingly high number of voters feel the same way about President-elect Joe Biden.

U.S. voters now regard each other as a bigger enemy than Russia or North Korea and just as dangerous as China.

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

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