Donald Trump’s crossover appeal? Most Democrats say he’d be ‘terrible’

As Donald Trump continues to lead Republican presidential polls, some of his backers have forecast that he could draw a significant share of Democratic votes in a general election.

On the other side, some Democrats have predicted that unhappiness with Trump might drive substantial numbers of Republicans to cross party lines if he were the nominee.

Don’t count on either of those happening.

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A new poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center underscores the powerful antipathy partisans feel toward the other side.

Among people who identify as Democrats or independents who lean Democratic, almost two-thirds, 64%, say Trump would be a “terrible” president. Another 18% say he would be a “poor” president. Only 8% of self-identified Democrats say he would be “good” or “great.”

By contrast, 56% of Republicans or independents who lean to the GOP say Trump would be good or great in the White House.

Perceptions of both Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders are almost as negative among Republicans as Trump is among Democrats.

In Clinton’s case, 57% of Republicans say she would be terrible and another 23% predict poor. Only 8% say good or great. Sanders is less well-known, but 34% of Republicans say he would be terrible, 26% say poor and 10% say good or great.

Among Democrats, 64% say Clinton would be good or great while 50% say so about Sanders. Both receive good or great ratings from about 7 in 10 liberals. But moderates and conservatives are considerably more likely to give that rating to Clinton, 59%, than Sanders, 38%.

On the Republican side, Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz both get good or great ratings from more than 6 in 10 conservatives, but a smaller number of moderates or liberals would give those ratings, 34% for Cruz and 47% for Trump.

The survey, conducted Jan. 7-14, questioned 2,009 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for the full sample.

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