The competing world views of Trump and Haley supporters

They view their party, politics, and the country *very* differently from each other

In my latest survey of Republican county chairs across the country, I wanted to get a sense of their more general views about politics and government separate from the presidential contest. Not surprisingly, these views differ a great deal by candidate support, and show how challenging it is for one candidate to get the whole party behind them.

For this survey, I spoke to 104 county Republican Party chairs across the country during the first three weeks of February. (The main results of this survey will soon appear in an article in Politico.)

I asked the chairs the extent to which they agree with the following statements. These statements come from a variety of other surveys designed to measure things like authoritarian sentiments, efficacy, and more:

• “It is important to select people of good moral character for high office.”

• “The United States is a republic, not a democracy.”

• “The US has a unique role to play in maintaining peace and security around the world.”

• “We need to get back to our traditional values and put strong leaders in power.”

• “Certain groups should just accept their traditional place.”

• “Our country is facing an existential crisis.”

• “The Bible is the actual word of God.”

• “A party should consider the views of party leaders as well as those of party voters.”

• “I have influence over the decisions and actions of the Republican Party.”

• “The GOP is too much under the control of wealthy and out-of-touch elites.”

The results can be seen in the chart below. I’ve listed the prompts in declining order of agreement. The top ones — about the character of officeholders, the nature of the US political system and its role in the world — had nearly universal support. The chairs had more disagreement about whether the US was actually facing an existential crisis, just how literally to take the Bible, how much power voters versus elites had over the Republican Party, etc. The prompt about certain groups accepting their traditional place in society saw just 11 percent agreement.

But this gets particularly interesting when will drill down these answers by candidate support.