Some Trump Voters Losing ‘Warm’ Feelings for Him

(CN) – Most voters supporting President Donald Trump who had “warm” feelings for him in the wake of the 2016 election have not changed their mind, the Pew Research Center reported Thursday, but a noteable minority takes an icier view.  

Pew researchers tracked survey data from before the election, after the election, and a year into the Trump presidency. Trump voters were asked to rate their feelings toward him on a scale of zero to 100 – with zero representing the coldest feelings and 100 representing the warmest.

Overall, 82 percent of Trump voters felt positively about him as of March. While his support peaked after the 2016 election at 87 percent, an overwhelming majority of his base still viewed him warmly into the spring of this year.

Between April 2016 and March 2018, a 59-percent majority of Trump voters were labeled "enthusiasts" who held "warm feelings" toward Trump from the campaign and through the one-year mark of his presidency.

Of this 59 percent, 60 percent said that they wanted Trump to win the Republican nomination during the 2016 presidential election cycle. This voting bloc represents the president's core base, who generally offer unbending support for his presidency and policies overall.

However, another important demographic among Trump voters is what Pew labeled "converts," who harbored cold or neutral feelings toward Trump prior to the election, but quickly warmed to him after his win in November and increasingly supported him into his second year in office.

Converts represented 23 percent of the Trump voting bloc in March. Forty-four percent of this group supported U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas during the 2016 Republican primary, but came around to Trump after his nomination was clinched.

Twelve percent of Trump voters, which researchers labeled "skeptics," viewed then-candidate Trump coldly before the election, but warmed to him slightly once he won the election.

The key difference between skeptics and converts is that skeptics have slowly started to view the president negatively again throughout his administration so far. Skeptics gave the president an average temperature rating of 57 in November 2016, but that number plummeted to 33 in March.

The skeptics were likely to be voters who were not enthusiastic with the candidate from either party during the general election, but ultimately chose Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The smallest demographic of the Trump temperature spectrum, "disillusioned" voters, are those who viewed Trump positively during the campaign, but revoked their support during the course of his administration so far. At a tiny 6 percent, Pew was unable to analyze this group as extensively as other demographics.

However, adding voters of Clinton, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein significantly altered the president's temperature rating during the same period. When considering all voters, a 55-percent majority viewed President Trump coldly in March and 39 percent viewed him warmly.

Additionally, while a clear majority of Republican voters have consistently supported President Trump, such voters represent roughly one-quarter of the overall electorate at 26 percent, according to the latest Gallup polling data from July. Democratic voters had a slight edge at 30 percent, but the largest voting bloc was Independent voters at 41 percent.

However, both major parties have been slowly pulling in Independent voters in recent months, beginning in March.

The poll numbers show the president continues to enjoy support from his core voting bloc, but those voters represent a slowly dwindling demographic compared to Democrats and Independents. As Trump continues to offer endorsements and rallies for various Republican candidates across the country, his presence in the midterm elections could present new challenges for GOP hopefuls as the election cycle reaches its conclusion.

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