The Apprentice-like competition within the GOP presidential field
for Donald Trump’s endorsement makes one wonder if it isn’t the finest, most coveted, gold-plated, luxurious and meaningful note of support that anyone running for office could have.
FOX News took it upon themselves to find out how much an endorsement from The Donald will actually benefit a candidate, and the results are in! The answer: getting the nod from Trump is almost four times more likely to hobble your campaign for the presidency than help it.
The numbers weren’t huge, but they showed a clear trend. 6 percent of Americans said that Trump’s endorsement would make them more likely to vote for the candidate, while a full 31 percent said The Donald’s seal of approval would make them LESS likely to vote for them. 62 percent said it would make no difference. The only real group that Trump’s endorsement may swing was within Tea Party supporters, which ran a near even split at 11 percent who said it would make a candidate more attractive and 12 percent who said it would make them less so. The rest of the subgroups rejected Trump’s endorsement soundly, with Dems and independent voters the most likely to say the endorsement would sour them on a candidate.
Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney raised a few eyebrows earlier this week when he came all the way to New York to meet with Trump, only to steer clear of interactions with the press and a photo-op. Wise move?
Texas Gov. Rick Perry met with Trump earlier this month (after which The Donald called him “Jim Perry”) and businessman Herman Cain is set to meet with him next week.
The FOX News poll used live telephone interviews with 925 registered voters nationally conducted September 25th to the 27th. It has a sampling error of three percent.
