A whopping 93 percent of Trump supporters say they would still vote for the former president even if he is convicted of a crime
- Trump was told last week that his fraud trial in New York will start on April 15
- Our poll found that almost all of his supporters say conviction will not change their vote
- “It could also make me more popular,” the former president said on Monday
Last week, Donald Trump learned that he will stand trial on April 15 in the first of four criminal cases. And his supporters say they simply don’t care whether or not he is convicted.
That’s the result of a new Daily Mail/JL Partners poll, which found just five percent of his supporters would change their vote in the November election if convicted before then.
About 93 percent said they would still vote for the president.
Overall, the results of our poll of 1,000 likely voters show Trump maintaining his four-point lead over President Joe Biden despite his litany of legal troubles.
If the election were tomorrow, 43 percent of respondents said they would vote for Trump, compared to 39 percent who said they would vote for Biden.
In our survey of 1,000 likely voters, just two percent of Trump supporters said they were very unlikely to vote for the former president if he were convicted of a crime before the election.
Former President Donald Trump sat stone-faced in Manhattan criminal court Monday morning. He was told he will appear in court on April 15, facing 34 offenses of falsifying company records. His legal team had asked for more time to prepare a defense
Pollster James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, said Trump was helped by the fact that his likely first trial – on charges of hush money payments to a porn star – was seen as the most politically motivated of the four cases.
Until recently, polls showed Trump’s votes plummeting whenever the possibility of a conviction arose. But in recent polls – and now ours – this has changed,” Johnson said.
“Here, 93 percent say they would stay with the president in such a scenario. This could change if it actually happens – polls can’t predict people’s reactions if an event happens – but with the hush money case happening first (the case people think is most likely to be a politically motivated charge), it can only change. helps Donald Trump.
“So far, the charges have only helped Trump in this race. There are no signals yet that convictions will have a different effect.’
The four cases have been preoccupying Trump for months. He has limited his campaign trips to weekend rallies and instead delivered political speeches from the courtroom steps or hallways.
His legal team has filed multiple legal challenges with prosecutors in Georgia, New York and Florida. And at one point, it seemed possible that voters would go to the polls on Nov. 5 without any of the four issues being resolved.
But on Monday, a New York judge told Trump his trial on charges of falsifying company records will begin in mid-April.
It could be completed before the end of May.
After leaving court, the former president denounced the prosecutions, claiming they were a form of election interference.
Trump has been in and out of court all year and has had to adapt his campaign by making political speeches from courtrooms and holding rallies on weekends
JL Partners surveyed 1,000 likely voters from March 20 to 24 via landline, mobile phone, text message and apps. The results have a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent
Results show Donald Trump retains his four-point lead over Joe Biden with just over seven months until the November 5 presidential election
But he also acknowledged how the New York case could actually help him.
“Well, it could also make me more popular,” he told reporters when asked if he was concerned about the impact of a conviction on the election, “because people know it’s a scam.”
“This is a Biden trial.”
Other polls have suggested that a conviction could cost Trump enough votes to change the outcome of the election.
An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released in February showed Biden’s one-point overall lead among registered voters growing to six points when respondents were asked whether a conviction would change things.