Detroit News Editorial: Dump Trump
By now Republicans must recognize the evolving train wreck that is Donald Trump. If they continue to ride him as their presidential nominee, they can’t say they weren’t warned when he takes their party and its slate of candidates off the tracks.
In Michigan, Trump’s numbers have collapsed since May, when he clinched the nomination. The candidate’s unfiltered comments and bizarre behavior on the campaign trail are rapidly losing whatever charm they may once have had.
Richard Czuba of the Glengariff Group, pollster for The Detroit News, reports that Trump is sliding particularly in key areas of the state, such as Oakland County and western Wayne.
“It’s really stunning to see,” Czuba says. “There are regions in Oakland County where 25 to 26 percent of voters are telling us they don’t know or refuse to answer — and they’re largely GOP or leaning GOP voters.”
As voters in this state and elsewhere actually start to weigh Trump as a potential president, and not just as a nominee, they are recognizing his unfitness for the office. And they’re losing enthusiasm for a candidate many once hailed as an outsider who could change Washington.
“The real story in this election is the unbelievably low motivation numbers for GOP voters,” Czuba says. “Motivation will be a major problem for Republicans down the ballot. I suspect we’re looking at a low turnout election, with Democrats right now the only voters motivated to vote.”
This is now about self-preservation for Republicans. If their voters stay home, as the Michigan polling indicates they may, it will wipe out GOP candidates all down the ballot, as happened in the 2006 election when uninspired Republican voters stayed home in droves, costing them offices from county commissions to the U.S. senate.
“I suspect we’re looking at a low-turnout election, with Democratic voters right now the only voters motivated to vote,” Czuba says.
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