(CN) - As Donald Trump prepares to accept the Republican party's presidential nomination Thursday night, a new study purports to show how his candidacy gained momentum over time, even as GOP voters changed their mind about him time and again.
The Pew Research Center first asked Republican voters their preferences for the GOP presidential nomination in March 2015.
At the time, barely 1 percent said Donald Trump, billionaire real estate developer and realty TV show star, as their first choice.
Thirteen months later, in April 2016, Trump was the first choice of 44 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters, more than any of his rivals.
Today, 88 percent of these voters back him in the general election against the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
Looked at broadly, the Pew survey numbers appear to suggest that once the Trump train got rolling, it consistently gained momentum.
However, while his support increased in the aggregate with each survey the Pew Research Center did over the course of the primary, researchers found that individual voters' preferences over this period were actually quite fluid.
These are the conclusions of an analysis of the primary and general election preferences of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters in Pew Research Center's nationally representative American Trends Panel.
From March 2015 to April 2016, nearly all Republican voters changed their minds at least once about who they were supporting for the GOP nomination, the researchers said, and this volatility was not confined to the early stages of the GOP nomination contest.
Sixty-one percent of GOP voters changed their minds at least once across the three surveys conducted from December 2015 to April 2016, as key primary contests were unfolding.
And a quarter of Republicans changed their minds twice in this period, the researchers said.
What's more, only 34 percent of Republican voters supported the same candidate at all three points, including 23 percent who consistently backed Trump over this period — which was by far the largest share "sticking" with any GOP candidate.
The result is a portrait of the fluidity in voters' decision-making throughout the primary process, the Pew Research Center said.
Some voters changed their allegiance by necessity, when their preferred candidate dropped out of the race. But others shifted their preferences, from survey to survey, among the active candidates.
In the case of Trump, his overall share of support grew throughout the primary process as he gained support from voters who had backed other candidates or had previously been undecided.
But he also lost ground.
Trump held on to 70 percent of his supporters between August and December of 2015, while 30 percent of those who had supported Trump in August went on to support other candidates or to say were undecided in December.
This "churn" in candidate preference was not limited to Trump; all candidates gained, and lost, support during this period.
This volatility continued into the primary season.
Aside from the 23 percent of voters who backed Trump consistently across three surveys between December and April, and the 7 percent of GOP voters who consistently backed Ted Cruz, no single pattern stands out.
